Divided
by SisterPet
Summary: Shortly after season five’s Extreme Risk. Chakotay and Torres are separated from Voyager and thrown into an adventure *STORY COMPLETE*
1. Default Chapter

Title: Divided  
Author: SisterPet  
Pairing: C&T  
Rating: G for now.  R later.  
Disclaimer: I don't own them

Summary: Chakotay and Torres, separated from Voyager and thrown into an adventure.

DIVIDED

Part 1

"Captain I'm reading a fluctual disturbance on long range sensors. It's heading this way." Harry stated, madly working the panel in front of him, he knew the captain would be demanding a more detailed description.

"What kind of disturbance?" Captain Janeway rose from her chair and stalked towards him.

" I don't know sensors can't make it out. All I can tell you is its huge and fast, it should hit us in about 2 hours" 

"On screen" The space around looked peaceful and normal, there was no visual sign of anything.

"The away team?" She threw the question at Tuvok, 

"They are not yet in sensor range but, if they are heading this way they will fly right into it." 

"Janeway to Seven of Nine, can you get me a better reading on what this thing is" 

"No, but I will continue trying." Came the clipped reply.

"Come on people, I need more information, Chakotay and B'Elanna will need all the help we can give them when they hit that."  She nudged Harry aside and started running diagnostics.

"Captain, maybe if we got closer to it we might be able to get better readings and be able to contact the shuttle before they hit it." Paris suggested. 

"I do not agree, Mr Paris, it is doubtful that our communications will penetrate that cloud, and at the speed it is doing it is highly likely that we will be engulfed." Tuvok's Vulcan logic was, once again, undeniable.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing! Please Captain!" He begged, rising to his feet.

Kathryn raised her hand, she knew and sympathised with his agitation, but could not let his feelings or her own growing fear sway her now. 

"Can we go around it?" 

"Negative Captain, it spans 20 light years by the time we got even halfway around it would be upon us."

"Captain we must move away from it."

"No I won't abandon my people! Can we out run it?" 

"If we leave before it gets too close we could, at high warp." Tuvok was already making the calculations that would answer her next question.

"How much time have we got "

"1 hour 15 minutes."

"Harry send a signal out to the shuttle, wide band and continuous relays, as soon as they are within range they will pick it up. I want to know the moment that happens.  Transporters get ready for an emergency beam out. If they get through that in one piece, I want to be ready to get them on board as quickly as possible. Tom, lay in co-ordinates away from this thing and prepare to jump to warp as soon as we have our people."

"Aye Captain" Tom returned to his seat.

The two figures in the shuttle were silently working at the console, neither of them aware of the danger that was just minutes away.

"I don't know if I will have a chance to thank you before we get back so I would like to do it now. When you forced me to come with you, out into space to meditate and try and make peace with my animal guide, I thought you had lost your mind but, these last few hours have helped me come to terms with the terrible tragedy that killed all our friends. So thanks." B'Elanna growled, uncomfortable with the feelings of respect and gratitude this man always seemed to draw out of her. No one seemed to know her as well, or be able to cut through to her soul quite that cleanly.

"I did not force you, I merely gave you a choice.  Come with me or take two weeks rest leave. You were badly hurt a number of times on the holodeck and these things take time to work through but, you are welcome." Chakotay hid the grin, knowing that if she saw it she would break at least one, if not all, of his bones.

"Some choices, " She muttered.

The console in front of them started beeping and wailing, 

"Shields up! " He shouted, lights flashing as their fingers worked in unison to try and find the cause for the alarm. Before either of them could even wonder what was happening, something powerful hit the ship sending it spinning madly. They were suddenly engulfed in a vortex that drew them helplessly into its centre and swallowed them.

"What the hell is that thing? " Chakotay roared, pounding on the console and ignoring the sparks flying from it. B'Elanna fought with the controls trying to draw the last drop of power out of a dying ship. In seconds the console exploded sending both of them flying backwards off their chairs. B'Elanna bounced off the back wall of the class 2 shuttle and landed in an unconscious heap. Chakotay landed not far from her, he could feel the darkness moving in on him and, with his last conscious thought, threw himself on top of her to shield her, before he too succumbed do oblivion.

"I have the shuttle Captain.  They are being flung out of the cloud and should be in transporter range within seconds. The shuttle is badly damaged and the warp core is about to explode!" Harry exclaimed.

"Tom, get ready to head out at my command!  Transport our people out now!"  Milliseconds later the view screen was engulfed by a blinding light as the shuttle exploded.

"Tell me you have them." 

"We are on board and fine Captain,"

"Good to have you both back, I would suggest a visit to sickbay just to be safe."

"Roger that. Chakotay out." Chakotay nodded to B'Elanna and they headed out the room.

It was less than an hour later that Commander Chakotay strode back onto the bridge and resumed his seat next to the Captain. 

"That was a close one Commander." Janeway frowned.

"Too close. Do we know what that thing is we hit?" He asked, looking around the room.

"Negative, we were hoping to be able to get some readings from the shuttle, but that will be impossible now." Harry shrugged.

"Tom, set a course that will move us out of that things way then hand the helm over to Ensign Wayne. Your duty shift ended over an hour ago." She had not missed the way he had been fidgeting at the helm since B'Elanna was beamed back aboard."

"Aye Captain." He grinned at her gratefully.

                                                           ***************************************

Pain.  Her body ached with it but it was something she knew and did not fear, like an old friend she had lived with most of her life. B'Elanna slowly came back to consciousness. At first, as the blackness faded, she thought she was back on Voyager having gone through another holoprogram without safeties.  But, as the darkness moved further away, the last few moments came back to her and her eyes sprang open.  She discovered two things instantly. She was lying face down, in a shuttle, engulfed in smoke and she was pinned under something big and heavy. Calling on all her klingon strength she pushed up and managed to dislodge the heavy object enough to wriggle out from under it. It was only when she turned back to look that she discovered that she had been lying under Chakotay. 

The first fission of fear ran down her spine, he was lying so still. A spasm of coughing doubled her over and the smoke was burning her eyes like acid. She realised that she could not take the time now to examine him as they had to get out fast. Fighting fear, she crawled to the smouldering control panel and, heaving herself up on a chair, she hit the emergency door open.  Luck was with her.  The back wall of the shuttle groaned and screeched like a tortured animal, but it opened.  Pushing through the smoke and pain, she grasped Chakotay under the arms and pulled. Though he was not a small man and most of his size was pure muscle, as a dead weight he was almost more than even her strength could manage, but move they did.  Inch by painful inch she managed to drag him out of the shuttle and over the grassy ground. Ten feet away she stopped. Her muscles screaming in agony, the breath burning in her lungs she collapsed on the ground next to him fighting to stay conscious. 

Finally, when the dizzying sickness had passed, she looked around.  Though she had never been to Africa, she imagined that it must look very much like this.  The flat grassy savannah was broken in the distance by interlocking mountains of wind-smoothed granite, surrounded by a jungle like forest of trees. She judged, by the placing of the sun, that it must be late afternoon.  A deep groan next to her snapped her back into action and she shifted closer and lifted Chakotay's head in her lap, gently tapping his face.

"Come on Chakotay wake up, sleepy time is over." 

Chakotay groaned again and tried to sit up, only to flop back down painfully when the hammering in his head increased to pounding. "Who ever poured the klingon blood wine will be on charges for the rest of his life." He hissed, getting a surprised snort of laughter out of B'Elanna. 

"You're a teetotaller, Chakotay, or has the bump on your head changed that."  

The rather pungent stream of Klingon curse words that followed his next attempt to sit up were ones that even she knew well. 

"Hey take it easy, I don't know what damage you have done to yourself. Judging by the size of the lump on your head, at the very least you have a concussion." 

She helped him up and braced his shoulders until he seemed steady enough to hold himself up. 

Chakotay forced back the red wave of pain.  Memory surfaced and he swung around searching for the shuttle, a move he sorely regretted almost instantly.

"The shuttle?" 

"Down. I am not sure how badly damaged it is but from what I saw, it is not good."

"We need to get supplies, medikit, blankets, and food rations. Help me up." He ordered, but B'Elanna shook her head, pushing him back down when he tried to stand up on his own. 

"I'll do it.  You stay put at least until I get the medikit and figure out how badly hurt you are." 

With the door being open the smoke had cleared out of the inside of the shuttle and she was able to see that the emergency fire extinguishers had put out the fires.  The damage was extensive and she could tell at a glance that the shuttle would need heavy repairs before if ever it would fly again. Taking the medikit, tricorder and phasers she took one quick reading around the shuttle and headed back out. Stopping once more to take another reading around the outside hull then pointing the tricorder at her phaser before shaking her head and throwing it back into the shuttle.

"The phasers are useless! It's strange but there seems to be a total lack of antimatter." 

Something rang a feint bell in his memory, but the harder he tried to grasp it the further away it got.

"Why does that ring bells?" B'Elanna murmured.

"Me too, but I can't get a fix on it. Leave it for a bit, maybe it will come to us."  

B'Elanna nodded and, taking out the medical tricorder, she ran a reading over him. 

"As I thought. You have a severe concussion but no damage, this hypo spray should decrease any brain swelling and help with the pain."

"I had a look around the shuttle and it seems to be safe for us to use as a shelter, but the systems and warp core are badly damaged.  Communications are down I won't even be able to send out a signal to guide Voyager to where we are."

"We are not even sure where here is, or if Voyager survived that cloud. We need to get all the sensor data on that cloud from the moment it hit us until we crashed." Chakotay rose painfully to his feet, swaying dangerously. 

"Hang on. Here lean on me, you're still very weak." 

Grabbing their equipment and bracing herself under his arm she took the brunt of his weight with only a slight grunt, and they stumbled drunkenly back to the shuttle. The light was fading when they reached it.

"It will be dark soon, I think we should close the door.  We don't know anything about this planet or its predators and I would rather not find out when one of them crawls in here with us." Chakotay said, as he sank onto the bunk.

The door closed a lot easier than it had opened and the interior lights flickered to life weakly. Taking a blanket out of the compartment above him, Torres covered him with it. His eyes were closed and she felt panic well up but fought it down, placing her fingers on his artery she felt a strong and steady pulse.  The tricorder showed that he was sleeping, exhaustion washed over her and she sank onto the other bunk, in minutes she was also asleep.

Chakotay rose, the headache and dizziness from yesterday was gone.  He imagined, looking across at B'Elanna, that she would be the one needing a hypo spray today. The early morning sun was beating down on the shuttle and it was already hotter than a sauna in there. Not Starfleet uniform weather.  Removing his jacket he made his way over to the control panels. 

"You were not joking, this is a mess." He murmured to his still sleeping crewmate. 

Two hours later B'Elanna awoke, groaning in agony. She looked over to where Chakotay sat with pad in hand, gazing out the view screen.  She knew instantly that something was very wrong and, when he turned to look at her, the gut wrenching tragedy in his eyes shot arrows of fear down her spine. 

"What? Tell me." 

He shook his head and handed her the pad. Some inner voice screamed at her not to read it, the same instinctive voice that warned her whenever something terrible would be revealed to her. They looked at each other a long time before she dropped her eyes and started reading. It was the sensor log he had managed to salvage from the computer and download onto the pad. It showed her exactly why they had crashed and also why the lack of antimatter had rung such bells in both their minds.  They had experienced this once before on Voyager. 

"The Kempton Experiment?" she asked quietly, her eyes begging him to tell her she was wrong. 

Chakotay nodded, tapped a few keys on the console and a picture of the shuttle flickered to life.

"Here we are as we entered the cloud." Suddenly the shuttle blurred and when it cleared she could clearly see the outline of a second shuttle superimposed over the first.  The two shuttles divided and drifted apart

"One got flung out of the vortex and exploded moments after it cleared the cloud, this one getting sucked down is us."

"Then the second shuttle was destroyed, they will investigate and they will find out what happened." She said firmly.

"No, they won't because the cloud is moving in the same direction. If Captain Janeway was waiting for us to clear the cloud she would have had transporters ready to beam us out of that shuttle before it exploded and, without the data on the shuttle she won't be able to get any readings on what happened.  Even if she did not get us out she would still not have had the time to pick up the pieces before the cloud got Voyager.  She would not risk putting the whole crew in danger just to find out what happened to one shuttle".

B'Elanna shook her head, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.

"They wont be looking for us because we are already there." She murmured, defeat slumping her to the floor she pulled up her knees and buried her head in her arms.

"You lied to me Chakotay.  Once again I have lost everyone I care about." She sobbed, jumping to her feet and running out the door. 

"Not everyone. I am still here." He murmured to the empty space.

To be continued…


	2. Part 2

Title: Divided  
Author: SisterPet  
Pairing: C&T  
Rating: PG 13 for now.  R later.  
Disclaimer: I don't own them

Part 2

B'Elanna lay on the bunk trying to ignore the sound of hammering and cursing outside. Moments later Chakotay entered, his undershirt soaked with sweat. The sun had tanned his already dark skin to a deep mahogany and the last two weeks of hard manual labour had burned away any sign of softness, defining every muscle and sinew in mouth-watering detail. She felt a tiny flicker of something spark deep down inside her, but the depression she had slipped into had too strong a hold on her for it to survive longer than a nanosecond.

"Get up, I need your help, I can't move this heap alone." He snapped, trying to gentle the anger raging in him. 

For two weeks he had fed her cared for her and worked alone, all the while waiting for her to deal with whatever demons were haunting her.  She became more and more withdrawn, surly and uninterested.  She slept from sun up to sun up and, if he did not force her to eat and drink, she would have slept herself into starvation.  It had taken its toll on even his seemingly endless patience.

"What the hell do you want to move the shuttle for?" she snapped, to tired even to be irritated.

"We are too far out in the open, we need to move closer to the shelter of that forest.  I have found evidence of intelligent life on this planet and I don't want to take the chance of assuming they will be friendly and then finding out they are not."

"This thing weighs over a ton. Were you planning to lift it on your shoulders and carry it? "She snarled sarcastically. 

Chakotay sighed.  She was making it very hard to remember that he was, by nature, a gentle man. 

"I have cut some logs, the land is pretty even and there is a slight decline about 20 meters from here all the way to the forest. If we do this little by little, Egyptian style using the logs to roll it along, we should be able to get right into that tree line."

"It won't work." 

So saying, she rolled over turning her back to him and, once again, prepared to sink into the blessed nothingness, where there was no memory and no pain.  Her eyes snapped open when she was whipped around and two strong hands grasped her by the upper arms and lifted her off the bunk.  His face inches from hers, he pulled her up until her feet were dangling off the floor.

"I did not ask for your opinion, I gave you an order. Now move your skinny butt outside and help me move this shuttle."  He growled, forcefully plonking her back on her feet and shoving her towards the door. 

B'Elanna rounded on him.

"And if I don't? What are you going to do? Throw me in the brig? Oh that's right I forgot.  The brig is light years away, heading for the alpha quadrant.  Gee Commander, I guess that means you're on your own, and that's exactly how you are going to have to move it. I sure as hell am not going to help you!" 

The control over his stronger emotions, that had taken years for him to build, snapped and thought gave way to pure emotion. For the first time since he had landed on Voyager his instincts were given full reign, and he knew what he had to do.  Though the thought sickened him, watching her wither away and die was not an option. 

He picked her up by the shirtfront and bodily threw her out the door.  She landed 10 feet away with a bone-jarring thud, not giving himself time to think he followed her out, grasping her up he threw her again. 

"Get up, woman!" He ordered moving towards her, fists clenched.

"Have you gone mad? Leave me the hell alone or I swear…" 

She never got to finish the sentence before she was picked up again and thrown. Her body screamed in agony, she tried to crawl away from the stalking figure. For one moment Chakotay hesitated. If he was wrong the damage he was doing to her, and their friendship, would be irreparable, but a voice deep down inside him assured him that this was the only way. She was a klingon and, if she was going to survive, she needed to let that half of her take over. It was her strength. He knew and had known enough klingons to know that they were a fierce warrior people.  Gentleness and soft handling did not work with them. He also knew that only in extreme circumstances would she let the klingon temper loose.  

"You'll do what? Break my neck? Eat my heart raw?  Well come on, here I am, do it!  Lets see what you can do." He dared her.

She staggered to her feet and took a weak swing at him. He dodged it easily and, with a shove, sent her sprawling again. 

"I doubt very much that you could fight your way out of a wet paper bag.  You really are pathetic. A snivelling pathetic coward with no honour." He spat at her before swivelling on his heels and walking away.

A deep rasping growl behind him was the only warning he got before something hit him and sent him soaring through the air.  With milliseconds to brace himself, he curled up and rolled, using his forward monument to propel him as he landed and rolled onto his feet, facing her in the classic fighting crouch.  He suddenly realised that his plan had worked a little too well. Crouched before him was the real B'Elanna.  Fierce, proud, stunning and deadly she stalked him. This woman would not pull her punches. She would hold nothing back.  She was a warrior from a nation of undefeatable warriors.  The only thing missing was the batlif. She also wanted him dead. "This is going to hurt," he muttered to himself. 

"You are going to pay for those insults Chakotay.  With blood!" She growled at him. 

He was very much afraid she would get her wish.  Despite her taunts, he knew how strong she was.  He also knew that he could no more seriously hurt her than he could jump to warp. Using every ounce of speed and skill he possessed, he managed to dodge the flying fists and lethal kicks, but he knew it was going to be a close fight.  He could not use the one advantage over her he had, his strength. The more he dodged her the angrier she became. Anger though, in this situation, was not going to help her. Something in her training fought its way through the red rage that clouded her mind.  She stood back; fiery anger was channelled into cold fury.  On a Klingon that was lethal. She studied him, letting her arms drop. Chakotay fell for it and relaxed his guard. With the speed of a striking snake she was on him, taking two fast steps her right fist caught him on the chin.  He reeled back, arms wide.  Pivoting on her heels until her back was to him, she slammed her elbow into his ribs, using all the power in her body to follow through on the blow.  Chakotay felt the crunch of his ribs giving way. Pain, white hot and piercing, shot through him.  His mind clouded and for a moment he felt sure he would loose conciseness but the instinct for survival forced him back.  Now he was fighting for his life.  He could no longer afford to play the gentleman. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he dropped to the ground using his legs to throw her up and over his head. B'Elanna landed badly, the breath whooshed out of her lungs. Fighting the nausea that rose to her throat she stumbled to her feet. Twice more he managed to toss her.  Though she landed a few more blows to his face and body, she was unable to cause any more damage.

Battered and bloody they stumbled around each other.  She lunged for him, letting rage take over.  It was her last mistake.  His backhand blow sent her staggering back, her knees gave in and she sank to the ground barley conscious.  Fighting the red haze of pain that threatened to put him on the ground next to her, he braced his arms across his damaged ribs and straightened up as far as he could.

"Be ready to get to work in twenty minutes." He ordered before staggering back to the shuttle.

When he reached the privacy of the shuttle he sank onto the bunk.  He hurt all over but the worst pain was stabbing through his chest with every breath that he took.  He tried to shallow his breathing but it still felt like a vice squeezing his lungs. It was in his thoughts though, what the worst pain was.  Nothing physical could match the horror of what he had done. He had fought long and hard to tame the angry warrior inside him. Not even Seska had managed to release the hold he had or destroy the inner peace that he had found. Violence, once so easy, was no longer something that he turned too. He had discovered that diplomacy worked far better.  He had known that B'Elanna was no match for him in hand to hand fighting.  He had fought many Klingon and knew that against a cool head and skill, they were not infallible.  Now, not only had he broken a life long rule that he strongly believed in, by raising his hand to a woman, he had also attacked a friend.  One he respected and cared for deeply. If, by some miracle she ever understood his reasons, and forgave him he doubted that he would ever be able to forgive himself. His self-flagregation ended when he slumped forward off the bunk, unconscious onto the floor.

B'Elanna fought back the darkness.  The red haze of rage disappeared as if it had never been and she rose to her feet.  Although she ached all over, she found that nothing was broken.  She would be black and blue, with dashes of red where the skin had been grazed away, but otherwise undamaged. 

She felt at once wonderfully alive and terribly sad.  The depression that had suffocated her was gone.  Her grief was deep and raw, and her razor sharp mind, so long in a dulled haze of self-pity, was working furiously. She circled the shuttle eyeing the damage, the distance to the forest and the best place to lift it onto the logs.  Weight, size, velocity. Calculation after calculation going around her head. She walked toward the forest studying the terrain, the ground and the distance. A huge pile of logs, 30 in all, lay to one side.  Each one a good 20 foot long and about 2 foot wide.  A broken piece of metal, hammered twisted and sharpened at the end to resemble an axe, leaned against it. The pure determination and brute strength it must have taken for him to not only move them all the way here, but to cut down the trees using only that, was astounding. 

 "No wonder he bested me." She muttered to herself, making a mental note not to piss him off again. On that thought she realised that 20 minutes had come and gone without a sign or sound from Chakotay. The last few moments of the fight flashed through her mind.  The feeling of his ribs giving way under her elbow had not registered at the time.  She sprinted back to the ship and found him as he had fallen, his breathing rasping and shallow.  Turning him over gently she reached over for the medikit.  The tricorder showed that he had three broken ribs and his internal organs were badly bruised.  Thankfully, she could detect no internal bleeding or punctured lungs. Since the incident that had almost cost Captain Janeway her life, the medikits had been upgraded to hold far more than emergency medical utensils than was routinely Starfleet.  They now had enough equipment to perform minor surgery if needed and, since her incidents with the holodeck, she had been taking a few basic first aid lessons from the doctor.  She knew how to mend bones and heal wounds but nothing quite this delicate.  She took out the ostriogenic stimulator and painstakingly repaired the worst of the damage to his ribcage. 

Chakotay awoke to the smell of burning rubber and the ripe rich sounds of someone cursing inventively.  Some of the words he had only heard in the worst places. The pain had dulled to an ache, but he knew the moment he moved it would return full force.  He tried to get up anyway. The hand that pushed him back down was firm but gentle. 

"If you move and undo all my hard work healing you, I will bust your head open."  She stated calmly.

He relaxed back, eyeing her warily.  Her expression was serene and she sounded like her old self, though for once he could not read her. 

"What's burning?"

"That was dinner. I managed to catch a small animal unfortunately I have never cooked on an open fire before.  It's inedible now." She muttered.

He decided now was not the time to remind her that he was a vegetarian.  Settling back down, he waited while she ran the tricorder over him.  Then, after handing him a plate of rations, she sat on the bunk beside him.

"I think the best place to lift would be the front.  It's already slightly raised so we might be able to lever it a little higher to get the first few logs under it.  If we push it at a 20 degree angle we might be able to zig zag it down hill……."

"B'Elanna we need to talk." 

She debated for a moment, then nodded with a sigh.

"Commander we really don't need to talk it to death.  I know why you did it and it worked. Lets just leave it at that."

"And us?" He rose up onto one elbow, studying her face. 

"We are going to be here for a long time.  I need to know where we stand."

"In a nutshell?" she grinned, mocking his favourite expression. "If I was going to slip a knife in you I could have done that while you were unconscious. We are as we have always been."

"Good enough." Chakotay nodded, settling back down and was, in moments, asleep.

It took them 2 days to move the shuttle.  They worked from sun up to sun down, barely taking the time to rest. Sweating, cursing and straining they managed to heave the shuttle onto the logs and, little by little, roll it down the hill.  Their first attempt bombed when the shuttle rolled away from them too fast and nose-dived into the ground before they could halt its momentum.  But with every meter they moved it, they learned more.  In the end they were so in sync that they needed no communication.  Each knowing automatically what the other needed. The bond of respect and friendship between them grew deeper and stronger, neither of them noticed that the command structure had disappeared and they were just a man and a woman fighting the odds, and winning.  At one point B'Elanna stepped back and watched him.  The sight of him without his shirt or jacket struck her and, for the first time, she saw him as a man. Rippling cords of muscles, damp with the water they were constantly pouring over themselves to cool down, brought a low hum of desire in her belly. Guiltily she looked away, thinking about Tom.

 "You have no right to be ogling other men when you're in love with Tom. No matter how hot they look." She muttered to herself, but could not resist one last peek.  The next thought that came to mind was forcefully rejected and she focused back onto the work at hand. Finally, though they were done.  Their small home was now safely tucked away inside the dark and cool forest, which gave them ample shelter all around.  They would not easily be spotted from almost any angle. To make doubly sure, they spent another day clearing away any trace of their landing.

"If, by some miracle Voyager does come looking, they wont even find a trace of us." B'Elanna sighed.

"Voyager is a long gone, B'Elanna.  We must start accepting that.  Lieutenant Torres and Commander Chakotay are on that ship and they are getting on with their lives." He stated, gently sitting down next to her and taking her hand.

"Your thinking about Tom. I know it's hard but you have to accept that for him nothing has changed.  He is still living, loving and fighting with B'Elanna as always."

She jumped up, moving away from him, prowling the small clearing, hands flaying the air.

"Easy for you to say, you have not lost the person your in love with. I am B'Elanna!  That interloper on the ship has no right to take away what is mine. My name my rank my friends my job my boyfriend! If I ever get off this damn planet, I will find her and kill her!" She swore hotly.

"What makes you so sure she is the double? Don't you get it yet? She is you. The same as Naomi Wildman or Harry. They came from another Voyager but they are still the same and they are real." He rose, gripping her by the shoulders. 

"You are not the only one who lost someone they loved deeply. But I am certain that the Chakotay on that ship will keep on loving, caring for and protecting her as I have. As hard as it is, I am trying to take comfort in that." 

B'Elanna watched him walk away, furiously trying to figure out who on the ship he could have been seeing without the whole ship knowing about it. 

"Captain Janeway." She gasped, Suddenly everything fell into place. Little things, that had been so out of character for him, became clear.  It had always confused her how he could so quickly have given up the Marquee way and embraced Starfleet, after leaving it so long ago.

"One look at Janeway and you surrendered everything." She muttered, shaking her head. 

They had waited weeks for a sign from him that they would mutiny and take over the ship. At first, they had thought he was waiting, biding his time until they dropped their guard.  But gradually it had sunk in that he had genuinely given up, without so much as a token fight. Having fought beside him for so many years, B'Elanna had been at first shocked, and then wary of this sudden character change. More personal was his obvious lack of lovers after New Earth. Megan Delaney had commented about it on more than one occasion, especially since she had been the one of a select few he had previously occasionally 'visited'. His discreet rendezvous had been almost legendary and rivalled that of Tom's, before he had started living the life of a temple monk. The speculation had been rife though none had dared wonder in his hearing. Mild mannered or not, he still defended his privacy with a vicious right hook.

"B'Elanna you are such an idiot." She groaned, smacking herself on the forehead. It should have been as plain as the tattoo on his face.

A rustle in the bushes to her right had her crouching and reaching for the makeshift axe.

"Who or what ever you are, show yourself!" She demanded. 

The figure that rose slowly had strange markings on his body and she could see that he was human, and unarmed.

"Who are you?" She asked moving towards him. He shrank back in fear, eyeing the axe in her hand. B'Elanna dropped the weapon and held up both hands.

"I wont hurt you, come a little closer." She urged, keeping her voice gentle and even.

"I have brought food to welcome you." he moved closer, holding out a woven basket of what looked like fruit.  She judged his age to be about 18 or 19 years old and he was tall, blond with the classical Viking features.  Strong, yet gently innocent.

"Thank you, but is it customary for your welcoming parties to hide in the bushes?" she asked taking the basket from him. 

"We needed to make sure that you were not one of the mechanical people." 

Chakotay returned to the campsite and the surprise that awaited him. B'Elanna was sitting deep in conversation with a stranger.  Both rose as he approached.

"Chakotay this is York.  He is one of the inhabitants of this Forrest.  His village is about 2km away."

Chakotay greeted the young man and took one of the offered fruit, biting into it heartily. 

"My village elders have invited you to join them tomorrow at midday for the rumatam feast." York offered eagerly.

"Rumatam?" B'Elanna asked 

"Yes, it is the feast to thank the gods for a good harvest."

"Please tell the village elders we would be honoured to join you." Chakotay smiled. 

"I must go now, the light is going and I must be back in the village before nightfall. You too must be careful Chakotay, this land is no longer safe for people alone."  York warned earnestly. 

Chakotay frowned, cocking a questioning eyebrow at B'Elanna. 

"The Mechanical men.  By the sound of things, they have been hunting and killing the villagers for the last two years and, by the description, it sounds like a larger group of androids." 

Chakotay questioned the youngster for another few minutes, but could get nothing more from him.

That evening B'Elanna thought about their earlier conversation.

"How did you and the Captain manage to be together without the whole ship knowing?" She asked. 

Chakotay did not answer at first, he seemed to be deliberating whether to answer her, finally though he spoke. 

"We were never together in that way." 

"I don't understand. Did she not return your feelings?" B'Elanna asked carefully, she was treading on the sacred ground of his privacy.

"No the feelings were mutual.  At first it was because she was engaged to another man. Kathryn would never break a promise, even to a man 70 000 light years away.  After that it was something else." 

The look on B'Elanna's face told him that he would not be able to get away with such a vague answer. 

"Something else?"

"I screwed up badly.  She trusted me and I let her down. When she decided to help the Borg fight species 8472, I was against it, we argued about it. Then, when I was in control, instead of keeping her word at all costs I welched.  On a promise she had begged me to keep. As my Captain she understood my reasons.  Even as my friend she could see my point but, somewhere deep inside, I destroyed something vital between us."

"Is that why you hate the Borg so much? I always wondered as it seemed so unnatural for you."

"No, but that hate was the reason I could not see her view.  It blinded me to everything but the need to see them suffer. I was all for sitting back and watching them be destroyed. I think it stems from being in a collective, even if it was for only a short time.  I had no will of my own, nor reason for existing beyond what they wanted from me. It's a terrible thing to live through. Though they never hurt me, they used me to go against my own beliefs and principals and endanger everyone I cared about." 

Chakotay rose and headed to the shuttle.  B'Elanna was surprised.  In one short night he had revealed more of himself to her than he had in all the years she had known him.

York did not arrive as arranged the next morning. B'Elanna and Chakotay had worked form sunrise repairing the defence shield and power grid in the shuttle.  With a bit of creative repair, they managed to piece together enough working parts to enable them to get not only the shields and replicator working, but two of the phasers too. By mid morning they had begun to get really concerned for their young friends safety. 

B'Elanna took a walk out into the savannah to make sure that they had eradicated all trace of their landing.  Now that they knew they were in danger, they wanted to take no chances. She noticed smoke billowing out from the trees in the distance.  Fear gave her legs wings and she reached the shuttle in record time. 

"Chakotay quickly! I think I know why York has not shown up." 

Chakotay followed her out to where she saw the smoke.

"We must go and look, they may need our help." She urged him.  

He weighed the danger to them against the need to follow his basic instinct.

"OK, but we go armed." 

He studied the direction of the smoke and headed into the forest. There was no path at all yet they found their way easily, due to Chakotay's scouting skills. The smell of burning wood reached them first, along with the first slaughtered villagers. Chakotay checked for life signs, shaking his head. Weapons drawn, they moved forward cautiously. The village was in the midst of a clearing. Small tree huts were set at various angles around a curtail circle, obviously the town square.  Various stalls were set up around displaying cloth, food, and what looked like tools. Bodies were strewn everywhere, most of them in obviously killed while trying to flee. The sight of so much death on these gentle people sickened them, but it was the body of one of the murderers that froze them in their step. Some of the villagers had tried to fight back and managed to kill one of them.

"Chakotay its Borg!" B'Elanna gasped.

"I can see that, the question is what the hell are they doing here?" 

Chakotay ran the tricorder over it, "It's also like no Borg I have seen before, there is hardly anything biological left to this thing, its almost completely mechanical." 

"Commander, I am reading life signs about two hundred yards from here.  It looks like they are underground." B'Elanna urged. 

They both headed in the direction, cautiously picking their way through the trees.  The tricorder like a homing device, signalling that they were almost on top of the life signs.  Yet there did not seem to be any tunnel or cave. They searched for a full ten minutes before they stumbled across a small clearing, in the centre was a huge rock. It looked quite normal. Chakotay checked around it and still found no sign that it had been moved, there were no scratches or gorges in the ground as would have been if it had been dragged or pushed.

"I don't get it, there are footprints of what looks to be women and children, leading right up to this rock, but how did they move it?  They must be under there." 

Placing his face close to the ground at the edge of the rock, he felt the faint breeze of air. 

"If you can hear me, we have come to help you.  The enemy is gone, you can come out now." He called. 

Moments later he felt the ground rumbling and as the rock started to rise he flung himself back. The rock raised up slowly and, when it was at least 1 meter off the ground, he saw that it was being raised by a very elaborate elevator, made up of concertina logs and tubes of wood in a very simple, yet brilliant, lifter.  The first people that climbed out of the tunnel were the warriors, twenty in all, with various sharp instruments that were makeshift weapons. Chakotay rose slowly, his hands held out.

"We come in peace." He said softly, hoping B'Elanna would not make any sudden moves.  

York came forward from behind them, pale and shaken.  They were glad to see he was unharmed.

"Its all right, these are the people we were expecting." He told the others, and they relaxed visibly.  A few of them turned and helped an aged man out, who moved forward and touched his hand to his heart in formal greeting.

"I am Lotar, I welcome you to my Village."

A short while later they sat in the clearing while the rest of the villagers returned to their home and started the long sad job of cleaning up and burying their dead. Lotar told them how the Borg had started attacking the villagers about 2 years ago. Up until now they had not been able to find the village, having never gone that deep into the forest, the villagers had felt safe.  Yet today they had appeared out of the blue and started attacking and killing for no apparent reason. 

"That is very strange, the Borg don't usually kill for no reason, they assimilate. But by the looks of that body, they are not even trying to do that." Chakotay explained that they knew the Borg. 

Lotar confirmed that they had never taken their people, they simply killed them, leaving their bodies wherever they fell.

B'Elanna took the tricorder and moved over to where the villagers had dragged the body of the Borg.

"I can't tell much without the proper instruments, but it seems that physically they have evolved into androids.  They no longer have the ability to assimilate.  I hate to say this but I could sure use 7 of 9 right about now."

"Whatever their reasoning is, they are obviously going to be back.  I suggest that we start planning a way to defend this village and its people." Chakotay looked around and groaned to himself.  It was going to take a lot of hard work to turn the Village into a fort and a lot of patience to teach the people to defend themselves.

"Lotar, we have faced many such threats from many different species so my people are very good at defending themselves.  If you will allow it, we will work with your people and teach them how to protect themselves against this kind of threat." 

Lotar studied the dark haired man for a moment. 

"You have the eyes of a gentle man, and the heart of a warrior. I can see that you are a man of honour, my people and everything we have are in your hands, we will do whatever you wish." 

Chakotay grasped his shoulder, deeply moved by what he had said. 

"I thank you.  B'Elanna, organise the villagers into work groups.  I need the outer perimeter of the village cleared and a trench dug, I want trees cut." 

"What have you got in mind?" She asked, though she had an idea.

"I will explain when I get back." He stated and headed into the forest.

"Hey, wait … get back from where?" 

She was talking to empty air as he was already gone, melting into the surrounding trees like a ghost in the mist.

The Borg trail was easy to follow.  They had not even bothered to cover their tracks and, after a brief stop at the shuttle, he headed out avoiding the village, going the quickest route to where he knew they must have gone. Following the path for about 2 hours, he cautiously kept himself hidden in case they had a few stragglers. One of the few things that he had managed to learn from his father had been to scout.  In that he excelled. 

The trees were thinning out and he had noticed that for the last few minutes he had been moving steadily up.  He passed out of the last line of trees and found himself at the foot of the enormous mountain range.  The tracks lead to the left.  He was now fairly sure where they were headed, since he had studied the little bit of information their scanners had managed to pick up while the ship was on its way down. Taking a deep breath, he started up the mountain, free climbing. It was hard going but the last weeks of manual labour had conditioned his arms and body.  At the academy he had excelled at climbing and found that the old moves soon came back to him. The higher he got, the harder the climb.  There were some places where he hung suspended from his fingertips, swinging over 100 meters up over savage rocks.  One slip and he was a dead man.  

Higher and higher he climbed.  In some places going straight up, in others a steep incline. Time lost its meaning, it was just one man against one mountain, one step after the next nothing else mattered.  He felt the mountain, its strength, its grandeur, its agelessness and its majesty.  He meant to conquer but was, himself, moved. For one short span of time it became a living thing to him with an ancient soul. He did not even know he had reached the top until he pulled himself up over the last ledge and found there were no more. He lay where he had landed, panting, sweating and bleeding from untold number of scratches and grazes his hands, knees, elbows and shins. Yet he felt euphoric. 

When his heart rate had slowed and his chest eased he sat up and was at once struck dumb by the pure beauty and grandeur below him. The panorama of deep forest, open savannah, huge lakes and winding rivers unfolded below him in breathtaking wonder. He had stood once on a mountain range in Africa and seen a similar view there, for one brief moment the felt that he was back there. This planet was so like home, if he did not know better he would be certain that he was back on earth, but in another time. 

The very best the world had to offer was right here as virgin land, unspoiled by the hand of men. No technology, no space vessels or buildings. 

Reason, and his mission, called him back to the present.  Using his water supply sparingly, he rinsed off his wounds and headed to the other side of the flat mountaintop he found himself on. He could hardly believe his luck, at this one small place the mountain range was at it's thinnest.  It opened up below him to frozen plateau as a glazier seemed to run through the centre, as if a great lake had been suddenly frozen in mid flow through the endless miles of mountains, one after the other, each more uninviting than the last. Taking his binoculars, he studied the land before him.  Shock sang through his body.  There in the centre were the ugly shattered remains of not one but two Borg Cubes.  Scattered for 50 meters around were the parts and pieces of countless bodies and cube parts. He sat and watched as the raiding party returned, the whole area a hive of activity. The raiders emptied sacks of something that looked like bottles on the ground and the others fell onto them in frenzy. He studied what he could see of the rocks. 

"Those look like container. Dilitium! That's what they are after" He muttered to himself. 

He watched until it became to dark to see then, taking his thermos blanket out of the pack he had picked up at the shuttle, he found a small enclave about 20 meters down the cliff and rested there for the night, waking intermittently through the night.  Each time he watched the camp below.

By sunrise the next day he had a clear enough picture of the comings and goings to head back down the mountain. Going down, while not easier, was at least faster than going up. It was late afternoon before he reached the camp.

B'Elanna fought valiantly with her temper, having spent the night waiting anxiously for his return, thoughts of his capture and possible death had finally driven her to the shuttle in agitation.  Her relief at seeing him coming towards her unharmed was short as her klingon temper erupted and she flew at him, fists flying.

"You inconsiderate patah!" She hissed as she connected with his chin.

Chakotay reeled backwards and his legs buckled.  Stars exploded behind his eyes.  Fighting to get onto his feet, if he stayed down there he knew he was a goner she would kick him to death. She came at him with a booted foot and he grasped it yanking the other out from under her, she landed on top of him. With a flip he pinned her under him, using his weight to hold her down.

"Now will you stop and tell me what your so mad about." He murmured, trying not to think about the soft curves that squirmed under him. 

"Ha….as if you did not know." She panted, pushing against him.  

His groan of agony went unheard. 

"You disappear for hours without telling anyone where you are going, or what you will be doing. I was worried about you!  Now let me up pig, so that I can slap that tattoo off your face." 

She bucked under him but he was too heavy for her to move.  All that her struggles had managed to do was move him until he lay cradled between her thighs.  As he pressed against her, she suddenly realised what this was doing to him. The evidence of it was pushing hard against her.  Lust exploded inside her.  It tore through her as charges of pure need electrified her.  A raging fire started inside her, burning quickly out of control.  

Fear gave her extra strength and she fought harder, twisting and turning, but she knew she was not fighting him as much as she was fighting herself.

Chakotay tried to shake the haze of desire and need that clouded his mind.  He held onto her in a purely instinctive response to her and himself. His desire for B'Elanna was something that he had long ago locked away deep down inside him, knowing that if it ever got loose it would very quickly roar out of control.  The after shock of such fiercely powerful needs and emotions would leave them both changed in the aftermath. Yet now, as she suddenly stopped struggling and looked up at him, he could see the same needs smouldering in her eyes.  His monumental will snapped and instinct drove him. His lips crushed down onto hers.  Her taste exploded on his tongue and when she moaned, he delved deeper. It was like nothing he had ever felt before.  Quicksilver coursing through his veins, igniting his blood until it boiled with heat. There was no thought, no will, only reaction and an unbearable craving for more.  His mind screamed it, his body demanded and his soul feared it. 

B'Elanna felt as if she would burst out of her skin.  The pressure inside building and swelling, mindlessly she surrendered to it, to him, to them. Passion tore through her, clawing at her with talons of fire. Lifting her hips, she pressed up against him, trying to ease the throbbing need that only he could fulfil. 

The taste of her was intoxicating and he suddenly knew that it was something that he would forever crave. His brain shouted a warning, if he did not stop now he never would. Drawing on years of self-control, he fought his way back, inch by painful inch until he drew back, fighting the wrenching demands of his body.

They lay there looking at each other in dazed shock. Neither had any idea what to say or do, breaths coming out in gulping gasps as they fought for control.

To be continued…….


	3. Part 3

Title: Divided  
Author: SisterPet  
Pairing: C&T  
Rating: R!  
Disclaimer: I don't own them

Part 3

Never, even with Tom, had she lost herself so completely to another.  Never had she surrendered everything. Chakotay knew now why he had never let his feelings for her loose, never delving into them. She was his soul mate.  Somewhere deep in his soul he had known that, recognised it and instinctively realised the danger she was to him. It was written in his tribe that, like the wolf that was his guide, once he found his mate there would never be another. She was all.  She was everything.  She was forever. Carefully he released her hands and rose off her to his feet.  B'Elanna rose too, still to stunned to make sense of the conflicting emotions raging inside her. Her loyalty to Tom warring with her new found feelings for Chakotay.  Feelings that she had thought long gone.

"I'm sorry… I…" words failed him and he shrugged helplessly. 

B'Elanna shook her head, raising her hand as if to ward off the words.

"Lets pretend that never happened." She whispered. 

"I can't do that B'Elanna.  It did happen, we both know it was more than just a kiss." He said softly. 

She stepped back away from him, as if putting some distance between them would make the feelings stop.

"I can't deal with this now, it's too much. I love Tom.  I'll admit, once I thought there was something between us, but it never happened.  It took me a long time to come to terms with that, to accept that we were friends, nothing more.  I can't… I wont let one kiss change that." She hissed, paced away then returned, punctuating each word with her hands flaying the air.

"We were always more than just friends B'Elanna, you know that.  Neither of us chose to admit it, we buried it, now its come out and this time I won't hold it back.  I am through hiding.  Deal with it!" 

Not waiting for her reply he turned and disappeared into the shuttle. 

It was hours later before she had gathered herself together enough to follow him in.  He was lying under the console, parts and pieces strewn around.  All she could see of him was a pair of muscular legs and, by the sound of the stream of colourful curses coming from that area, he was fighting with something under there. It always amazed her that a man with so much patience and wisdom in other things could be undone by inanimate machinery.  Most women had the good sense to know that, when a man was this riled it was a good time to back off and leave him to work it out.  B'Elanna was not most women. 

"What the hell are you doing to my shuttle?" She shouted, kicking the thigh closest to her. 

Chakotay shot out like a rocket, heavy instrument in hand.  To give him credit, he only thought briefly about hurling it at her.

"Trying to take out the shield reactors.  If we can get them in place around the village, we might just have an edge when the next attack comes.  And it's not your shuttle."

"You're destroying our only chance to get back!" She cried. 

Chakotay rose to face her, dropping the tool.

"The shuttle is too badly damaged, even if we could repair it we do not have any fuel left to take off. We don't have the recourses to refine the dilithium. The warp coil is destroyed and thrusts are crushed. There is no way of fixing it.  Don't you think its time you accepted that?" 

B'Elanna shook her head, hands raised to hold off his flow of words. 

"What about the Borg?  They must have come here on a ship.  We could use that to get home." 

Chakotay sighed. Taking her arm he started leading her to the bunk, urging her to sit before sitting opposite her. 

"I followed them back to their camp. There are two smashed Borg cubes over that mountain range. I doubt either of them will be able to fly. They are in about 2 million pieces. If, by some chance, we did manage to get past the 50 odd killer drones in that camp, it would do us no good.  They obviously don't even have the power to regenerate in those ships." 

"How could you know that?" She argued, trying desperately not to believe him.

"They are attacking the village for fuel. I took a quick look on the way back, these people are using dilithium for their fuel.  Its raw and unrefined, they are using it to regenerate.  Their refinery is crude and obviously not too good because the stuff is poisoning them and destroying their biological parts."

"That's why the are almost completely mechanical now, their nanoprobes are simply taking over the body parts that are dying off and its affecting their function.  They are not assimilating because they can't." B'Elanna sighed, slumping back.  

She had held onto the tiny spark of hope that they might, by some miracle, get off the planet.  But she knew now, it was useless.  A small quiver of relief spurted inside her, but she refused to acknowledge it.  She was not ready to analyse it, though it was something she did at odd moments in the days that followed.  She was seeing her relationship with Tom in a new light, and it was becoming slowly clear to her that though she had cared for him, it had not been the deep everlasting love that she had thought it was.  Her relationship with Chakotay, though changed, was still a terrifying mystery.  One that she refused to delve into. His touch, once so impersonal, now seemed like a caress.  A hand on her arm to draw her attention would bring a shiver under her skin.

B'Elanna was in one of her pensive moods.  Chakotay had gotten to know most of them over the last two days since their confrontation.  He was so attuned to her that even a slight change became known to him almost instantly.  Neither of them had made any more mention of what had happened, but he knew she thought about it often.  Right now she was sitting under the tree, taking a break from their work in the village.  They had moved most of their things there but the major work of stripping and salvaging was still done here since it was easier.  The villagers, although wonderfully helpful and willing, were sometimes a little over zealous and it was better that the more delicate work was done away from them.  Her beauty stunned him.  The sunbeam that broke through the thick foliage enfolded her, bringing out the auburn fire in her hair.  She had let it grow and it flowed around her in a fiery silken cloud. Years ago, when they first met, the idea of starting a relationship with her was both appealing and scary to him.  Self-preservation had kicked in and he pushed his feelings as deep down inside him as to be almost gone.  Now, those feelings and needs were becoming harder and harder to control.  At night visions of her haunted his dreams, leaving him sweating and aching.

"Tell me about you and the Captain:" She asked him quietly. 

Chakotay lowered the power conduit he was working on and crossed over to sit beside her.

"Why?  It has nothing to do with us, here or now."

"I just want to know.  I need to understand you." 

With a sigh he settled himself back against the tree, taking her hand in his.  Touching her was becoming as vital to him as breathing. 

"There is not much to tell. I worshipped her. Thinking back it seems almost as if that was all it was. The moment I laid eyes on her something clicked. I was bowled over.  She was so tiny, so daintily feminine but unbelievably strong and sure, with an aura of command it was mind-boggling.  All I wanted to do was protect her.  Serve her.  In any way I could.  As time went by, I could sense that her feelings for me were also more than Captain to First officer.  She was attracted but did not want to be.  She was still in love with Mark, but I doubt their relationship was very physical.  He is a lot older than her for one thing and being an intellectual all her life, she was very good at squashing the fiery part of her nature.  She must have learned long ago to bury those passions in some deep dark part of herself. I seemed to draw them out of her and it made her uncomfortable, though I sometimes sensed they excited her too. The closer I got though the harder she fought.  On New Earth she was very close to letting go, but we were rescued before anything could happen.  There were many times over the last few years since then, that I was convinced I had imagined it all.  She was pulling further and further away from me.  But there were moments when I would catch her looking at me with such hunger…"  He sighed, shaking his head.

"You still have feelings for her.  I can see that." She accused, not admitting to the jealousy that flared up.

"Of course I still have feelings for her B'Elanna.  I can't suddenly turn them off and I sure as hell don't expect you to either." 

"Then how can you suddenly have feelings for me?" She demanded, snatching her hand away. 

"I have always wanted you, but it scared the hell out of me. What I have with Kathryn is tame compared to that. I am not going to bullshit you. I respected the Captain, I cared for the friend and yes, I wanted the woman.  There have been many women that I have wanted and had.  She was the one that held out the longest. Maybe that was it.  If I had had her, maybe things would have changed for me.  I will never know as we never got that far."

"B'Elanna, I know you are having trouble letting go of your feelings for Tom. I don't expect you to forget him or to stop caring for him.  Those things are a part of you, but you have to work through them.  I will wait as long as it takes. What we have will keep until you are ready for it."  

B'Elanna closed her eyes forcing back the tears that threatened to choke her. 

"I loved him.  God I really loved that man. I don't want to feel anything for anyone except him. It seems so wrong, but I do, and I can't stop it.' With a gasp she broke, sobs wracking her body. 

Chakotay picked her up and set her on his lap. She cried hard, every sob torn from her.  He could do nothing for her, except hold her, murmuring silly nonsense words in her ear while she drenched his shirt.  Her voice cracked and hoarse, yet still she cried.  Like everything, she did this with her whole heart and soul.  

Finally, the storm subsided and she started talking.  Hesitantly at first, every word cut from her heart.  She spoke of her father, her mother and Tom. Reliving every moment with him and in that way, while he listened, she grieved and said goodbye.

Over the next few days they worked steadily with the villagers.  Digging the trench and cutting the logs that, with the special cement these people made from the grinded up rock in their underground caverns, would make a solid almost impenetrable wall.  York and his people were wonderfully friendly and they had a very advanced intelligence, though they were still in the early stages of their development.  They had leant to refine fuel into energy for lighting and heat but it was very crude.  They were also very nature conservative, taking only what the earth gave up freely.  No mines of any kind.  From stories and legends, it seems that they came to be on this planet the same way as Chakotay and B'Elanna.   Their people came from a Starship that had crashed on this planet centuries ago.  The survivors had been no more than children and had reverted to near Stone Age to survive.  As the generations passed, the old ways were forgotten or only remembered in stories. 

Chakotay, with a few of the strongest men, was in the forest cutting the trees.  Each would be stripped of its branches and cut to a point before they were laid side by side on the ground, ready to be lowered into place.  It was a slow painstaking process.  Every tree had to be replaced with a sapling that was grown by the villagers for that specific purpose.  They used logs to build their homes and had long ago started a nursery to replace every tree they used.  

Alone after the days work was done, B'Elanna and Chakotay stripped the shuttle.  Every single part was moved to the village, until there was only an empty hull left in the forest.  They had their own small cabin in the village, built out of a combination of logs, cement and shuttle parts.  It even had a sonic shower.  They had managed to link up some of the power conduits to the energy supply generator that the villagers used and, with a lot of inventive engineering, had gotten the shield reactors and a replicator working.  Although, without the main computer uplink its own small inner computer was limited in what it could produce. 

The fiery tension between them was almost unbearable at times.  They managed, at least on the surface, to fall back into their earlier friendship.

Chakotay kept regular watch groups at key locations around the clock, in case the Borg returned.  It took a further two weeks before all the logs were in place and ready to be raised and cemented together.  B'Elanna was setting up the last of the shield modulators around the outer wall parameters.  The heat and humidity made working for long periods of time impossible, even for her Klingon metabolism.  She blinked as drops of sweat ran into her eyes, moving over to the shade of the forest, she found a tree and flopped down with a sigh, wiping her sopping brow.  The flask of cool water was a relief as she poured it over her head.  She was glad Chakotay was too busy to notice that she had once again disobeyed one of his orders.  He had insisted that, for the sake of their health, no one would work in the sun for longer than 30 minutes at a time before taking a minimum of 10 minute break in the shade.  She had been out there for over 3 hours. Guiltily she looked around to where he was working.  A purely feminine purr of appreciation rumbling in her throat at the gleaming muscles of the men at work as they sweated and heaved the heavy logs upright into the trench.  Yet, even amongst all those fit young bodies, Chakotay stood out, his dark bronze torso rippled with power.  She was struck by the pure unadulterated sensuality this man carried around with him like a cloak.  He was a head taller than the biggest among them and his dark husky looks a direct contrast to their blond beauty.  He moved like a jungle cat, strong, sleek, and deadly.  She watched him stroll alone deeper into the forest, and getting up without even realising what she was doing, she followed him.

She had never seen him stripped and realised that while in uniform he looked proud and commanding, it hid the absolute power of him. The man under that uniform was pure Indian warrior.  Centuries of persecution had not tamed their proud spirit and, looking at him, she now knew why, if his ancestors were anything like him. 

Deep in her body something flared to life.  The more she looked the more she wanted.  The growl, low and deep, reverberated out her throat.  

Chakotay felt her behind him.  Some sixth sense whispered her feelings to him. The low growl was the only other warning he got.  He swung around as she barrelled into him, carrying them both tumbling to the ground, he landed on the soft moss with her on top of him. 

"B'Elanna…" 

Whatever he was about to say was lost as the breath closed up his throat. In one blinding white hot flash all his senses were lost and the blood flowed out of his head.  He lay there with her astride him, gazing at the sheer beauty of this powerful woman. For one instance in time she encompassed everything that was woman – strength, power, innocence, sensuality.  Almost of their own accord, his hands ran up her thighs over her torso and engulfed her breasts.  For a small woman she was very fully built.  She felt him hardening under her as his body responded. The tips of her breasts pressed against his palm, fingers probing he found the edge of her shirt.  Driven by desire, burning with passion, in one mindless reaction he tore it, ripping it open to expose her to his hungry gaze.  With the lightest of touches, he ran the tips of his fingers around the golden globes, spiralling closer and closer to the burning tip, while she rose over him eyes closed head thrown back, moans of pleasure rumbling from her throat.  Her hips undulated against him, tearing away the last of his control.  Lunging up, his mouth fastened on her breast, rolling the puckered tip between his teeth.  B'Elanna cried out, burying her hands in his hair she held him to her, frantically pressing herself against his iron hardness.  His hands dropped to the waist of her trousers and they followed the shirt, torn off her in a frenzy of unbelievable strength and need.  His fingers delved down into her soft centre pushing into her as she exploded and flowed into his hand.

Madness overtook him and in one move their positions were reversed.  Still stunned in the aftermath she lay under him, her body throbbing.  With hands tongue and teeth he ruthlessly drove her over again and again until she was screaming, mindlessly writhing under him, begging demanding and whimpering.  She felt sure she would die from the pleasure yet he showed her that there was more.  Lifting her hips he entered her slowly, filling her agonisingly.  When she tried with teeth and hands to urge him deeper faster he pinned her arms above her head.  The effort to control himself cost him as the need to bury himself hard and deep clawed at him with razor talons.  Yet still he moved slowly, filling her inch by pulsating inch.  Insane with need, her body shuddered and peaked.  With every move he made, daggers of pleasure drove through her until she ached with the need for him to fill her.  No longer able to take the exquisite torture, she lifted her legs and wrapped them around him, impaling herself on him she sheathed him to the hilt.  He filled her to bursting as pleasure tore the last thread of control and he erupted mindlessly driving himself into her with a force and violence that rocked her over the next crest.  Giving her no chance to come down from that, he drove her up further until in unison they exploded into a world of dark secrets and wicked pleasure.

To be continued…….


	4. Part 4

Title: Divided  
Author: SisterPet  
Pairing: C&T  
Rating: G for now.  R later.  
Disclaimer: I don't own them

Summary: Shortly after season five's Extreme Risk. Chakotay and Torres are separated from Voyager and thrown into an adventure.

Thank you very much to everyone for the encouraging reviews.  My sister finally managed to beta another chapter! – enjoy!

Part 4 

B'Elanna drifted slowly back from the clouds, purring like a giant cat. The large body sprawled on top of her shook with laughter, lifting himself up onto his elbows, Chakotay grinned at the dazed wonder on her face.

"You sound like a lion." He murmured.

Trying to move, she found that her hands were still trapped in one of his above her head.  "Are you going to let me up?" She asked, trying to tug free. 

Chakotay tightened his hold. "No. I'm sorry, I just can't do that." he murmured as his lips descended on hers.  

Nibbling and tasting, he explored every curve and dip with a single-minded thoroughness that left her hot and aching.  Tearing her hands loose she drove them into his hair, deepening the kiss, while his wonderfully clever fingers found her breasts.

"Again?"  She whispered in astonished wonder.

"And again and again. " He growled, thrusting his hips forward and propelled her to new heights of ecstasy.

It was dark before they managed to sneak back to their cabin.  B'Elanna dropped exhausted onto the bunk, eyeing him with awe and a new respect. 

"If I have one more orgasm it will kill me." She thought to herself with a happy grin. 

Her body ached in unmentionable places yet she could not stop the growl of appreciation as he stripped and stepped into the sonic shower. His body, the most incredible thing she had ever seen, powerful muscles rippled under smooth almost hairless skin. Chakotay noticed her watching him through the open door and a purely predatory grin settled on his face.

"You're welcome to join me." He offered in a husky voice.

"I doubt my legs would hold me up." B'Elanna laughed, more than half serious. "I guess Megan Delaney was not exaggerating." 

Chakotay's head swung around in surprise, a flush of embarrassment tinting his skin.  B'Elanna couldn't help the laughter that gurgled out of her throat.

"Megan Delaney?" 

"Yep." She said, deadpan. " She told me that you managed to satisfy both her and her sister in one night.  It made you quite a legend on the ship." 

"The whole ship knew? You people could not have had enough work to do." He complained, turning his back to her.

"Why Commander, I do believe you're blushing… all over."

He was on her in two steps.  In moments she was too busy being ravaged to think, let alone talk. The savage was back and she welcomed him joyfully.

Warm passion rippled through her.  She was swimming in a sea of sensual pleasure, hands holding her, fondling her.  A strong hard body against her back, the line between dream and waking faded and became one. Instinct pressed her closer to him. He moved away slightly and she murmured fretfully, until she felt a stab of heat as the warmth returned.  A hardness filled her softly, slowly.  The pleasure increased and built and she responded by pressing herself closer.  Still it built up and grew until it was almost pain, an intense wonderful pain.  For one indescribable nanosecond she was on the brink before the sun blew up inside her, sending wave after endless wave of white-hot heat through her. Her body was still pulsating when she turned to him and they grinned at each other like fools.

"Good morning Commander." B'Elanna smiled.

"Good morning Lieutenant," Chakotay dropped a kiss on one puckered nipple, "you're out of uniform.  I think I will have to take disciplinary action." 

Then with a wicked smile and a sigh "But, that will have to wait, we have work to do." 

"I can't wait." She growled.  

Of course, since they shared a shower, she was very thoroughly 'disciplined' and loved it.  The man had an incredibly erotic imagination.

The fence was complete, as was the defence shield.  They worked faster and in unison, their minds as one. Though there were many hot burning looks exchanged, neither trusted themselves to touch the other.

"Is the shield generator from the ship up and running?" Chakotay asked, as he watched the huge gate being bound into place.

"Yes, we'll have shields ten meters around the outer perimeter in the front.  I just don't know how long." 

"Long enough I hope. Now comes the hard part, we have to start training these people into some sort of defence army." 

B'Elanna watched the happy fun loving villagers around, sadly shaking her head. 

"They are so innocent, I hate having to teach them to kill."

"Not to kill B'Elanna, to defend.  Themselves and their homes.  The Borg are not going to give up." 

He hesitated, gearing himself up to what he knew was coming.

"I want you to start teaching them basic self defence. Target training with the phasers and hand to hand. The watch groups in the forest are our first and only warning."

B'Elanna eyed him suspiciously. 

"And you will be doing?"

Sighing, Chakotay took her arm and moved toward their cabin.  He knew sparks were about to fly.

"I am going back over the mountain. I can't sit here and wait for them to attack." 

B'Elanna rounded on him angrily.

"Oh, so how exactly is climbing free hand over a mountain going to help us?"

"It will give us a better idea what they are up to.  Are they preparing for a fight?  Are they aware of our existence here?  I need to watch them for a few days get to know as much about them as is possible."

"And if you get captured?  Chakotay, how is that going to help us if we loose you?  How are we going to rescue you?  You're the only one who knows where they are." She shouted, shoving him back with every word. 

Chakotay grasped her hands, bringing them up against his chest. B'Elanna tore out of his grasp and stepped back.

"You are not going, I won't let you." She stated desperately, fear for him driving her on.

"B'Elanna, I outrank you." He reminded her gently, then with a steely look.  "Now we both know I am going. Get over it." 

She came at him with a speed that was blinding.  He didn't see the blow that sent him staggering or the teeth that closed over his cheek and bit, but he felt the pain. B'Elanna jumped back, the taste of his blood filled her mouth and she knew it would be a taste she would never forget.  He was hers now.

"Don't you pull rank on me, not after last night!  You were not wearing a uniform then and I won't let you hide behind it now. You belong to me now, I have tasted your blood and I have given you my mark.  All the rank in the world will not help you there, so face me like a man!"

Some instinct deep within him roared to life and he welcomed it. Letting it drive him, he barrelled into her and sent them both crashing onto the ground. With grunts and colourful curses they fought and wrestled across the floor sending the table and chairs crashing down.  In skill they were evenly matched but he out weighed her.  In the end she lay beneath him, arms pinned above her head, legs clamped between his.

"We have been here before." She cursed him. 

Chakotay glared down at her.  Hooking a hand in her shirt he tore it down the middle.  His mouth swooped down and B'Elanna arched up anticipating him, instinctively giving him access, but he ignored the dusky tip.  Closing his mouth over the upper curve he sank his teeth hard into the soft flesh.  Blood ran over his tongue.  B'Elanna screamed, fighting harder but he held her fast. 

"Now we're even. You belonged to me the moment I touched you. This is just to confirm it in a way the Klingon part of you will understand." 

Looking into her eyes, he gentled his hold and dropped a soft kiss on her stunned mouth.  He rose off her slowly, watching her carefully just in case she tried to break his neck.

"I have to go. Whether we like it or not, it's something that has to be done.  We know far too little about these Borg to be able to anticipate them and if we are to survive, we need to be able at least to do that." 

She took the offered hand up, shocked and subdued, rose to stand before him. The pain in her breast dulled to a throb. Chakotay took the dermal regenerator and started running it over the wound. She grasped his hand, stopping it before it healed completely.

"I want to keep the scar. You must know enough Klingon to know what this means." She asked carefully.

"Yes I do.  On Klingon we would be mates. Here though, let's call it engaged." 

Kissing her soundly, he put the regenerator back in its place. 

"I have to go or I never will." He groaned. 

B'Elanna grasped his face and fused her mouth to his.  His thoughts clouded and he drowned in her essences.  When she drew back they were both stunned and dazed. 

"That should keep you warm up in those mountains." She whispered as she turned and walked out, leaving him gaping after her in a passionate haze.

"Keep me warm? That will have melted snow for the next 200 miles." He groaned.

It was man against mountain again.  Though this time the going was a little harder, the pack was heavier and it was getting distinctively cooler the higher he got.  Winter was coming in fast.

At the top he found his previous campsite and, after checking up on the Borg, he set up the place that would be home for the next week or so.  Thoughts of B'Elanna drifted through his mind.  He missed her already and it had only been a few hours.  Rubbing his fingers over the scar on his cheek, he found himself grinning like a fool.  Rubbing that scar would be something he would do every time he thought of her, and he thought of her often.  While he was recording the Borg movements and while he was eating.  His nights where filled with hot erotic images of her that woke him sweating and in agony.  Having her had not sated his hunger, now that he knew how it could be between them, the craving for her turned into a constant ache.  It did not take him long to realise that he was in love with her and he also knew that she was no where near ready to hear it.  She was still in love with someone else.  

Chakotay and Tom had spent many nights at Sandrine's and, though Tom seldom spoken about his private life with B'Elanna, he had once mentioned that he could not tell her that he loved her and that when she declared her feelings for him it made him uncomfortable. 

Chakotay had thought at the time that sooner or later the relationship would burn itself out as the feelings seemed one sided. 

His morning meal was interrupted by an explosion, the power and velocity throwing him back against the rock face.  Grasping his binoculars he dove for the nearest cover, convinced they had somehow sensed him and where shooting at his location.  When no more shots followed he carefully raised his head.  The one side of the cube that held the refinery was no more, as were the alcoves where they took turns in regenerating.  From what he could make out, something had set off the unstable dilithium.  As the drones moved around salvaging and pulling out parts, he realised that some of the parts were drone.  It looked like one of the drones had been standing too close but he could not figure what had made it go up.  He had studied it and found nothing to indicate that it was in danger of exploding.  

"I have to go down there and see what went wrong." He muttered to himself.  

In his time as part of a collective he had learnt much about them.  One of the things that he learnt was that it took their sensors a few minutes to detect a non threatening presence, other than their own.  He spent the rest of the day planning his route to the last detail.  One false move and he would be a dead man. 

Studying the rock face below him he found what looked like a natural slide, as the left hand side of the plateau was pure ice that went up the side of the mountain, almost to where he was.  If he lowered a rope and stuck pylons along the way, he could be up and down in about 15 minutes.  It was also far enough away from the camp to be still undetectable.  He estimated that once in the camp he had about 3 minutes to get in and out.  Taking out the dark suite he had replicated, and the winter covering for his hands, he wound the rope around his body and filled the loops on his belt with pylons.  His time piece was set to give of a vibrating signal on his arm the minute his time was running out.  All he needed to do was activate it when he reached the outer parameter of the camp.  It was sundown when he was finally ready. 

Looking down from the top of the ice slide, it seemed so much steeper than it had earlier.  Shooting in the first pylon, he fastened the rope and threw it down.  His night glasses helped him to see every bump and dip on the path.  Looping the rope around himself, he gingerly lowered himself to the ground and slid off.   He picked up speed too quickly as the ground was wet and slippery and the muscles in his arms stood out with the effort it took to stop his body weight.  He had marked in his mind the exact places the other pylons would need to go and he reached the first one, nearly overshooting it as gravity pulled at him.  Agony shot through him as the rope burned through his gloves but his motion was slowed and finally stopped.  Finding a minuscule hole, he wedged his foot in.

The next two pylons were easier as he found his rhythm, finding it better to lower himself down hand over hand.  It took nearly an hour before he reached the bottom, and another 10 minutes before his breathing and heart rate reached anywhere near normal. 

Crouched near the ground, he scurried to the outer parameter of the camp.  From down here the crash site looked even worse than it had from above.  He saw, and smelled, the rotting remains of Drones that had all the mechanical parts striped from them and their biological remains left to decay.  Most of them had already been picked down to skeletons by scavengers.  Some of the carcasses were not as old as others, a sure indication that they were dying off at an alarming rate. 

Setting his alarm, he picked his way slowly and deliberately towards the explosion site.  He moved as if he were one of them, the seconds ticking away in his head.  Yet he could not hurry, any sudden moves and he would draw attention to himself.  His eyes moved left and right, taking in everything around him, every small detail.  Something caught his attention and he moved over to it. It looked like the remains of a Drone but, unlike the other, on close examination his first impression had been correct.  It looked as if it had exploded from within its own body, the wounds and damage could be explained no other way.  Running his tricorder over it confirmed this. 

A suspicion grew in his mind and he looked around him with a new awareness.  Small details, that had previously not meant anything to him, now took on a whole new, terrible meaning.  The closer he got to what was left of the refinery the more he realised just how dangerous the situation was.  He could smell the escaped gasses in the air around.  One good spark in the right place and the whole thing could go up. 

The dilithium was refined down to its purest form and was being fed into the regeneration alcoves, powerful and dangerously unstable.  The Borg were feeding this pure substance into their mechanical bodies.  It worked, as long as no electrical current ignited the gasses that the pure substance secreted.  If one of their parts malfunctioned and sparked in the right place, they would explode, taking anything within a radius of about 10 feet with them.

The buzzer on his arm went off and, as he turned to walk back, he noticed a small puddle of liquid on the ground.  Using up his precious seconds to tear a piece off his clothing, he soaked it in the liquid and wrapped it up in a piece of Borg exterior plating.  His brain screamed for him to hurry, to run, but he moved calmly.  Every Borg that neared him was a possible threat and he expected an arm to grasp him from behind at any moment. Relief flooded through him as he reached safety. 

Going up was hard.  He had no purchase for his feet so he had to use his arms to pull himself up.  At the top he crawled over to his camp and collapsed on the ground shuddering, his lungs burning as he drew in great gulping breaths.  Forgoing sleep that night, he recorded all his findings.  The liquid he had found turned out to be the dilithium and as he analysed it, he realised that it was every bit as bad as he had thought.  The next morning he went down again.  His scans around the surrounding showed the area rich in dilithium and, by the look of things, they were sitting on one of the biggest suppositories of the stuff.  But since they did not know how to extract it, they stole it from the villagers. 

Over the next few days he made frequent trips down and moved around the camp.  Something else showed on his tricorder and whatever it was, it was huge and sitting frozen about 50 feet down in the middle of the ice.  However, before he could get clearer readings of it, the drones around him seemed to start moving with more purpose and he decided it was a good time to get out of there just in case they noticed him.  From the safety of the ledge he watched them, realising very quickly that the party of 20 odd drones were heading off to raid the village.  Since their supply of dilithium went up in flames, they need more.  He stayed just long enough to see just how well armed they would be and how many were going before, leaving everything except his rope, he headed back.  He realised to beat them back with enough time to be of any use, he had to go down dangerously fast. 

B'Elanna watched as the rows of young men and women practised the routine defence moves she had taught them.  With a deep sigh she thought about Chakotay for about the millionth time over the last ten days.  The need burned inside her like a fever.  She missed him more with every night she lay in the bed longing for him.  His calm manner and wisdom would ease the nervous jitters.  She sensed something was about to happen, could almost smell it. 

Her small army was as ready as she could make them yet she knew it would be far from enough.  They were enthusiastic and willing, their naturally limber bodies following the age old Klingon moves with ease.  But it was the fire in their bellies, the lust for battle, the yearning for blood that sang in her veins, that they lacked and no amount of practising would teach it to them.  She feared that in a confrontation with killer Borg, they would be as helpless as babies.  The phasers she had managed to replicate would help, but there were only a few of them. 

The force field was ready.  The wall and the gate were in place, along with a few Marquis surprises she had prepared further in the forest.  The people hunted with a form of bow and arrow as well as slingshot and stone, which was a bonus since they were very good shots.  She had modified the arrows with parts of the shuttle she had ruthlessly hacked up, and it had not taken the archers long to get used to the extra weight of the arrowheads.  A scaffold now stood on the inside of the wall, to just about a meter under it.  From it they could shoot down from the top while still reasonably protected.  Concentrating the main units on either side of the gate where the last attack had come from, she knew enough Borg to know that they would have no reason to change their attack protocol. 

The phasers went to only the best shots, knowing that they would have to do as much damage with the first few shots as possible before their shields adjusted, and the phasers became useless.  She hoped that the body shields would not be able to protect them from the arrows and metal balls.  Now, as she watched, the fear that often overwhelmed her at night fought its way to the surface.  Where was he?  Why had he not returned?  He had said a week and it had been three days past that.  B'Elanna knew if anything happened to him, it would be the end of her.  She would not survive his loss.  Over the last few days she had come to realise that what she had with him would, and had always been the most incredible and wonderful thing in her life.  It scared and yet excited her. 

A distant sound reached her, she looked up tensed.

"B'Elanna someone is coming." York shouted down from the scaffolding beside the gate. 

She sprang up, grasping her phaser.

"Sound the alarm, everyone to his or her stations.  As soon as everyone is in close the door!"  She shouted as she ran for the platform she had singled out for herself. 

It stood right in line with the path that ran out of the woods.  York blew on the wooden flute and the sound echoed through the forest.  Those that were outside would make their way back as fast as possible, while the elderly and the children ran to their hidden tunnels.

"Quickly people!  Move move move!" she urged. 

Everyone knew the drill, they had practised it twice a day down to the last minute, every detail was etched into their minds.  In no time at all, everyone was in place.  The rock was lowered and the gate was closed.  The archers were in place, their back-ups right below them. 

She watched the trees ahead unblinking, phaser ready and set to kill.  The figure that emerged moved slowly, arms raised.  B'Elanna gave a cry and, in a movement of unbelievable grace, she flew over the top of the wall, landing cat like on the other side in full run. 

Chakotay watched her warily, he had no idea if she was going to attack him again or welcome him.  She jumped on him, legs and arms locked around him, her mouth fused to his in a kiss that burned his blood and left him trembling with the effort it took to hold himself in check.  He knew there was no time.  Moving, with her clutched to him, he strode through the now open gate. 

"B'Elanna they are coming!  A party of twenty is right behind me." He said as she slid down.  

Instantly alert, she nodded and signalled York to sound the final alarm.  Chakotay spent the next few moments briefing her on the new danger the drones posed.  They both looked at the wall in a new light, it was strong, but neither could predict if it was strong enough against an explosion of the magnitude that he described.  He walked the parameter, admiring her handy work.  She was not only a good starship engineer as what he saw filled him once again with pride and awe.  This woman was capable of making the most impossible happen.  He moved over to where she was commanding her troops.

"Can I see you for a moment?" He asked politely, already leading her out of earshot. 

"How do they look?"

 B'Elanna did not need him to explain what he meant.

"What they lack in skill they make up for in enthusiasm.  But they are not killers, Chakotay they just don't have it in them. They hunt for food but to kill another being?  I really don't know." 

Chakotay watched them preparing and shook his head.

"I think they will surprise you. These people are defending their homes and loved ones. There is no one and nothing more deadly than a man protecting his family."  B'Elanna raised an eyebrow. 

"Or woman." she added with a small grin.  

He frowned.  For the first time in their relationship he feared for her safety.  Instinctively, he wanted her in the tunnels with the others but he knew if he suggested it, or even hinted at it, she would rip out his liver and feed it to him raw.

The second alarm sounded form within the forest.  The waiting was over.  

Grasping her up he crushed his lips down on hers, pouring everything into that one kiss.  The blood ran out of her head and she felt her world spin on its axis.  She stumbled and fought for balance when he released her moments later. 

"One more thing for you to think about.  I love you. I intend to build a life with you and have children with you, and then grow old beside you.  I am not asking you B'Elanna, I am telling you so be prepared.  When this is over we begin our life together."  

While she stood there, still too stunned to do more than gape, he tossed her a cheeky grin over his shoulder and hoisted himself up to his station on the opposite side of the gate to hers.

It was only when York called anxiously down to her that she snapped out of it. 

"You have either a very twisted sense of humour, or a death wish, telling me something like that just before a battle!" She shouted at him hotly as she climbed the tower.

Whatever his reply would have been was drowned out by the explosion that came from within the forest, followed by another and another.  B'Elanna's traps had found their targets.  From his vantage point, Chakotay could make out the first few Borg.  They were less four already, obviously damaged by the traps.  Another stepped on a trap and the spiked log that impaled him also carried his neighbour.  Six less, the others seemed not to notice or care.  They paid no attention even when, in a fiery display of sparks and smoke, they both self-destructed.   B'Elanna frowned over at Chakotay, she had not quite grasped the impact of what he had told her until this moment.  It meant that hand-to-hand combat was impossible.  They had to hit them from a distance, anything closer than 10 feet would be lethal. 

"Make each shot count." He shouted to the archers who were watching in horror. 

The remaining Drones walked forward unhesitant, neither surprised nor concerned by the wall that now stood there, as if it was too insignificant to bother with.  The first of them hit the force field and exploded, followed by another.  The archers brought down another three.   Two of them exploded, the third slumped to the ground in one piece.  The next one managed to walk through the shields.  They had adapted.  B'Elanna's phaser shot hit him straight in the face and the explosion that followed threw debris around like bullets.  The archer next to her howled in pain and flew backward off the scaffolding.  She did not even look at him, knowing the people below would tend to him. 

The closer they got the more damage the explosions caused.  Since they were now inside, the shield perimeter would not help them.  The wall was holding off the worst of the shrapnel but still people were being hit with it.  Chakotay grasped the wall in front of him as another blast rocked the world. 

"The shields are our only hope!  If one of them gets too close to the wall, it won't hold without shields!" He shouted. 

"The modulators have to be moved closer to the wall and reset." B'Elanna called back. 

Before she could move herself, he was over the wall and, in a crouching run, heading for the farthest one.  

With her heartbeat in her throat, she concentrated on the remaining Drones.  Another went down without exploding, an arrow pierced through his throat. 

The other Drones did not notice him, they seemed intent on getting to the wall.  Chakotay managed to move the first two modulators and was heading for the third and last, when her warning shout froze him.  He angled his head, using his peripheral vision he saw one heading to him.  This one had no hands but vicious looking metal claws that were moving towards his neck. 

"Too damn close." He muttered, even as he moved into action.  

Ducking his head he swivelled around and barrelled into the drone, flinging them both onto the ground.  He was up in nanoseconds, knowing he had no choice but to fight him hand to hand.  The shield modulator behind him was in place and active, he could not get back that way now.  

The drone was already on its feet and moving in on him swinging, those lethal arms.  Another explosion close by shook the ground around him and he fell back heavily.  It saved his life, as a piece of red hot smoking metal flew over his head and decapitated his attacker. 

As it stood there smoking and sparking, he realised he had mere seconds.  Flipping to his feet, he swung his body full circle.  His leg shot out and caught the walking bomb mid-chest. .The jar of bone meeting metal flung both of them back in opposite directions.  The drone stumbled back into another behind him.  The closer they got to the wall, the more they were bunched together.  Three of them went off at the same time.  The eruption caused massive damage and for about twenty feet around the trees were torn out of the ground.  The wall, shuddered and pitted full of holes, held.

Chakotay's last thought was that B'Elanna was going to etch a new tattoo on his face.  The imprint of her fist.  

To be continued…


	5. Part 5

Title: Divided  
Author: SisterPet  
Pairing: C&T  
Rating: Very much R.  
Disclaimer: I don't own them

Summary: Shortly after season five's Extreme Risk. Chakotay and Torres are separated from Voyager and thrown into an adventure.

Part 5

B'Elanna watched Chakotay go down and screamed his name. Every fibre of her being demanded that she go to him but years of training and discipline held out.  She would be useless to him if they both ended up hurt. Pushing back the fear and panic, she signalled the archers and they let loose a volley of arrows. 

York watched his idol fall and could not contain himself; in the past weeks this man had become a hero to him. Having no idea how the shields worked he did not think of them as he jumped off the wall, almost landing on the invisible energy field.  Only by sheer blind luck did he miss being sliced in half.  Heart beating in her throat, B'Elanna dove for the phaser at her feet and, with deadly aim, blew out the closest modulator just as York rose and ran to Chakotay.  He grasped the unconscious form under the arms and dragged him back to the wall.

The remaining drones were badly damaged, yet still they came. With no shields to protect the wall B'Elanna knew it was too late to do anything more than shout a warning.

"Everyone get away from the wall and back to the centre of the village!  Find cover!  MOVE!"  She screamed, while lifting her spear and sighting it on the closest Borg. 

Using every drop of Klingon strength, she threw it.  The shaft sailed through the air with the power of a missile, it went through him and the force flung the mechanical nightmare back closer to the others, one of which was already spitting sparks.  The ensuing eruption threw her into the air along with a huge section of wall.  Splinters of wood, like daggered spikes, ricochet in all directions.  Something hit her leg hard, but she had no time to wonder as the ground broke her fall and she landed in a heap.  Stone, wood and sand pounding down on her.  Dazed and bruised, B'Elanna lay for long moments fighting to force air into her lungs, refusing to let the darkness pull her under. With almost super human strength, she clawed her way out from under the rubble that covered her.  A sharp, searing agony burned from her leg as she tried to move it and a scream gurgled up her throat.  Valiantly she swallowed it back and moving the remaining debris off her legs, she looked, instantly wishing she had not.  A two-foot long wooden spike was pierced through her thigh.

All around her people were picking themselves up, anxiously looking around.  It was strangely silent, not even the moans of the injured seemed to penetrate the heavy stillness. 

Clenching her teeth, B'Elanna dragged herself to the nearest part of the wall that was still standing.  Fear for Chakotay driving her.  Every inch forward causing unspeakable pain and she welcomed it.  As long as it hurt her imagination could not picture what must surely be left of the man she loved. 

"B'Elanna let us tend to you." Lenor moved over, using all the strength in his frail yet powerful body to help her the last few feet. 

"I must find Chakotay and York. God they were outside in that." She cried, trying to stand but her leg collapsed under her and she slid back down onto the ground. 

"The others are already out there looking. Right now I need to attend to you." 

"Just yank that damn thing out of me!" She hissed through clenched teeth. 

Lenor examined it.  The splinter, which had gone right through the upper thigh, was about three inches in diameter and very jagged.

"I do not think that we should pull it out. It's firmly wedged in, if we try to move it, the damage may be lethal."

"Will you listen to me, damn it!" She roared  "I want the damn thing out of my leg now!  Just grab it and pull!" 

"You never listen to anyone do you?" A voice said softly behind her.  Chakotay stumbled into view, helped along by a grinning York. 

They looked terrible, cuts and gashes dripping blood and their clothing in tatters.  Chakotay had a large deep wound on his calf that must have severed a tendon as the leg was dragging uselessly.  He slid down beside her and yanked her into his arms in one move.  The sight of him alive and grinning pushed the pain back. 

"Damn you, Chakotay I am going to kill you." Her angry words belied by the wobbly voice and the sobs that tore out of her.  Burying her face in his chest she inhaled his scent, giddy with relief.  Moved beyond words he gently stroked her hair.

"It takes more than a few Borg bombs to get rid of me." He murmured, moving to look at her leg.  A shudder of fear tore through him, gently he leaned her back against the wall.  He could see instantly what Lenor had meant.  If they tried to pull it out the jagged edges would break off and be driven deeper into the leg.  Inside the wound would also be full of splinters and the bits of wood would fester, or worse, move into her bloodstream and kill her. 

York rushed over with the med kit and Chakotay loaded the hypo with painkiller. 

"I don't want it." She groaned trying to push him away.

"Shut up." He muttered, injecting her. 

The pain eased almost instantly and she slumped back in relief.  Using the medical tricorder he ran it over the leg.  As he'd suspected, along with the large one there were about four smaller splinters imbedded inside her leg, pieces that had probably broken off on impact.  There were also hundred of minute ones all around the inside of the wound.  The impact of the large splinter had nicked a major artery and it was now acting as a plug.  If they moved it, she would die of blood loss in about four minutes.  The sub dermal regenerator would help only if he got to it fast enough but taking the splinters out would take time.  Time she did not have. 

York tapped him on the shoulder  "Let me heal your wound."  He indicated to the pool of blood that was collecting under him. Chakotay waved him away.

"Commander you will not be able to help B'Elanna if you loose consciousness." 

"He's right. This thing is not going anywhere." B'Elanna sighed softly floating on a cloud of painkiller.

York did not wait for consent, shoving Chakotay back none too gently, he grasped the injured leg and ran the dermal regenerator over it. 

At Chakotay's surprised expression, "B'Elanna has been teaching us your technology."  He smiled in answer to the unvoiced question.

While York worked on him, Lenor examined B'Elanna again.  He was not only the village leader, but also their doctor.  His instruments might be primitive but his knowledge of the body was extraordinary. 

"If we tie a band tightly around the leg above the wound, it should slow the flow of blood." He murmured.  

"These smaller pieces and some of the larger ones would wash out with it, but it is these two pieces that cause me the most concern. If we pull out the splinter in the direction it went in they will be driven deeper." 

"So how do we get it out?" Chakotay asked. 

Lenor sighed, looking up at B'Elanna.  She was following the consultation with calm acceptance, for her a sure sign that the painkiller was very strong.

"We need to make the wound larger.  Without the tightness wedged around it, we should be able to pull out the bigger splinter without forcing the others in deeper." 

He explained what needed to be done while Chakotay and B'Elanna looked on in terror. 

"Can't you just yank it out?"  B'Elanna murmured. 

Chakotay squeezed her hand in comfort.  "He is right, it's too dangerous.  You have to trust us." 

Turning to York and the doctor he nodded. "We need to move her to the cabin."

Making a temporary stretcher out of a tabletop, four young men carried her to the cabin.  Under Chakotay, York and Lenor's watch full eyes, they lay her on the worktable.  It was the only place that had plenty of strong light.  B'Elanna was pale and sweating, the pain was getting unbearable again.  Chakotay prepared a stronger dose of painkiller.

"I am going to give you a heavy dose of this, it will make you a bit disorientated and light headed.  I'm sorry, but it's the best I can do." He whispered as he sprayed her neck. 

B'Elanna grasped his arm  "I trust you, what ever happens, I trust you with my life."  

"I love you." He kissed her gently. 

"Your equipment is more advanced than anything I have ever seen, therefore you must do this.  I will talk you through it." Lenor urged. 

Chakotay took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves before nodding.

Two of the women from the village came in; one of them placed a root between B'Elanna's teeth.  They would be holding her through the worst of it, their soft voices and gentle hands comforted her.  York and Lenor grasped her legs.

With a nod Chakotay picked up the laser scalpel.  Following instructions, he made two deep incisions on either side of the splinter.  At the first deep slice B'Elanna stiffened and screamed through her clenched teeth.  Her body bowed and the two women holding her found themselves airborne.  They scrambled back, desperately flinging themselves onto her arms to hold her.  As the laser cut again she bit down, severing the root between her teeth right through.  The scream turned into a pitiful keening until the air in her lungs expired and she could scream no more, fighting for air as hard as she fought against the pain.

Suddenly she stopped and was still. Chakotay shuddered in relief.  She'd lost consciousness. 

When the blood flowed freely from the incisions, Lenor fastened the tourniquet but did not tighten it yet.  As predicted, the deeper Chakotay cut the more splinters washed out of the wound.  Checking the tricorder, York confirmed that all but two of the bigger ones were gone.  Lenor tightened the tourniquet and grasped the blood-covered splinter.

"We must let the blood wash the wound clean for a few moments before we tighten it more."  Lenor hissed.

Chakotay braced his hands on either side of the wound and pulled it open.  Slowly, inch-by-inch, Lenor drew the spike out.  Only when it was finally completely out did Chakotay look over at the tricorder in York's hand.  Blood was bubbling out so fast they were already working in a pool of it. 

"There is one still in there, she is loosing too much blood!" He cried helplessly. 

Lenor tightened the tourniquet until it bit into her flesh and the blood flow slowed, but it did not stop.

"You must find it and take it out." The older man hissed, using all his strength to hold the tourniquet. 

Closing off his mind to what he was doing, Chakotay drove his fingers into the wound.  Deeper and deeper he pushed until his entire hand was engulfed in her flesh. Seconds ticked off in his head as he felt for the splinter.  His fingers brushed something hard and he grabbed for it, but it was slippery and slick and he could not get a good grip.  Again and again he tried, his brow beaded with sweat as panic threatened to choke him.  Suddenly, just when he was loosing hope, he had it.  Resisting the overpowering urge to hurry, he eased it out carefully. 

To be continued…


	6. Part 6

Title: Divided  
Author: SisterPet  
Pairing: C&T  
Rating: Most definitely R.  
Disclaimer: I don't own them

Summary: Shortly after season five's Extreme Risk. Chakotay and Torres are separated from Voyager and thrown into an adventure.

Part 6

B'Elanna woke slowly.  She felt light-headed and as weak as a new borne kitten.  Trying to sit up, and finding she could not even raise herself to her elbows, had her growling impatiently.  Strong hands urged her down and she looked into tormented eyes.  The horror and shock of what he'd done put deep shadows in his eyes and haunted Chakotay's thoughts.  She knew that she could do nothing to help him; he had to work through it on his own.  Lifting a hand, she gently stroked his cheek. 

"Thank you for saving my life." She murmured.  

Words logged in his throat; he could not speak past the constriction.  With a shake of his head he turned away from her, fighting for composure. 

"Hey, after that giving birth to our eight children will be a breeze." She smiled watching and waiting.  Chakotay gaped at her like a fish out of water. 

"Eight?"

"At least.  I always wanted a large family." 

While he sat there trying to digest that, she closed her eyes and drifted off again a small grin on her face.

"Gotcha!" She snickered.

Twelve hours later, while still a bit weak, she was fully recovered and mad as a hornet. 

"What do you mean my clothes have been taken?" She roared.

York backed a few steps further away, just in case she lunged at him. 

"The Commander took them and the replicator.  He said you were to spend the next twenty-four hours in bed." 

"Oh really? Well you go and find me something to wear right now.  If he thinks I'm staying in this bed while the Borg are setting up another attack, he does not know me at all!" She thundered.

York edged backwards until he was standing by the door. "Sorry, I can't do that. He left strict instructions that you were to stay put." 

Before the flying glass could hit him he was out the door, a stream of curses in a language he could not understand following him.

Chakotay hefted the twelve-foot log back into its place.  He'd not been able to close his eyes the whole night, visions of the operation drove him out early in the morning and he made good headway restoring the damaged wall before anyone had even awakened.  Even working himself to near exhaustion in the last few hours, he still could find no peace.  The men around him chattered and laughed as they worked, but for once he did not join in. 

Their sudden silence alerted him and he turned to see what was causing it.  B'Elanna strode towards them, covered barely by strips of the blanket from her bed.  He nearly swallowed his tongue.  All that beautiful satin skin, the long shapely legs exposed for all to see.  A fact the others were greatly appreciating. 

For the first time in his life, reason fled and he reacted on pure emotion.  An emotion he had, until now, never experienced before.  Rage, red, blinding, uncontrollable fury erupted and drove him to near insanity.  It propelled him forward, meeting her half way. 

B'Elanna never got off the stream of abuse she intended to heap on his head.  Without one word from him, her arm was clamped in an iron vice and she was being dragged, struggling, back to the cabin.  In angry frustration she dug in her heals, but he yanked roughly, bringing her stumbling behind him.

"Have you lost your mind?  Let me go!" She gasped, wrenching at his arm.  It was like trying to move a mountain. 

Once inside, he lifted her around the waist and plonked her onto the bed.  B'Elanna sprang up as if she'd hit a spring, fighting to get to her feet.  He pushed her back down. By the third attempt her Klingon temper got loose and her fists flew.  Stars exploded behind his eyes as she caught him on the chin.  She was on her feet in the seconds it took him to recover.  Fists raised, she backed away from him, until the table stopped her. 

As a half Klingon she was fearless, brave beyond any human comprehension.  Yet now, as she watched the white-hot fury in his eyes, she realised that she was not completely without fear.  

The last few weeks and days had battered and thrashed at his inner balance, his strength and control until it wore thin. Pure will had held the storm at bay but it broke free now, washing all civilised thought and reason away until all that was left was the primal man inside. 

"Get back in that bed." Chakotay forced the words through clenched teeth, his body taunt and shaking with the effort it cost him to speak. 

Her own anger curiously gone, B'Elanna realised that in all the years she had known him, he never lost control, never lost his cool.  Even in the midst of battle or passion, while her restraint was in tatters, he still seemed to be in full command of his.  Now, as she saw the titanic battle waging inside him, she realised why.  With that much emotion, it needed great power to keep it under tight reign.  It was like a pressure cooker inside him, if she did the sane thing and got back into bed, he would go off and fight it all back inside.  Rebuild the walls of steel, and somehow she knew that it was not what he needed now.  He needed to let loose, let it out. He'd stood by her when she needed him countless times, she would do no less for him now. 

Lowering her hands she stepped forward until she stood toe to toe with him.  For a fleeting moment she wondered why she had never noticed how much bigger than her he really was.

"No!" Forever after she would look back and wonder how she could see the precise moment the last thread snapped.  The tide of emotion that washed out over her left her quivering under its power. 

Chakotay's eyes went flat, his hands rose in slow jerky motion and she felt sure he would belt her.  But they shot forward and buried themselves in her hair, yanking her head painfully back until she arched against him.  His mouth, hard and unyielding, crashed down on hers, crushing and bruising while his teeth sank into her lip. Ecstasy, dark and thick engulfed her mind.  Hands of steel tore at her, grabbing, bruising. 

There was no tenderness, only need.  An overpowering need.  His callused fingers pulling at her breasts, rolling the tip between them, teeth nipped and tongue lathed down her neck.  B'Elanna whimpered in mindless pleasure, her senses battered by the onslaught, her body palpitated by his rough hands.  His legs pushed between hers, pushing her thighs apart and reaching down he grasped her and lifted her onto the table.  The tiny scraps of material she wore seemed to melt away under his insistent hands.  His fingers drove inside her hot moist centre as his teeth closed over her breast.  She cried out at the double blast of pleasure pushed her over the first rise. 

"Tell me you want me." He growled, his rough chin scraping the soft underside of her breast while his fingers moved in and out of her.  The sweet tension was building an unbearable pressure inside her.  B'Elanna could hardly breathe let alone talk.

"Tell me, damn you!" 

"Yes! God yes, now!" She moaned helplessly tearing at his clothing, until the length of him filled her hands. 

Chakotay grasped her arms and twisted them behind her back until she was bowed back, defenceless against the onslaught.

"Then take all of me." He ordered as he drove himself into her fully, deeply.  The explosion that erupted inside her caused a chain reaction of orgasms that left her screaming at their power.  His every pounding thrust driving her over another peak until she was mindless with the intensity of them.  Her silken inner muscles clamping around him.  Letting go of her arms, he lifted her hips driving himself deeper.

"Take more." He grunted as he pistoned in and out.

"Mine ,mine, mine….." with every thrust, his voice in her ear like a manta.  Her head swam, her vision blurred as the next crest torpedoed through her so fierce it was almost painful.  She clung to him helplessly as yet another atomic blast tore through her.  Chakotay threw back his head and howled as he poured himself into her.

She could not move, her limbs were so weak that, if he were not pinning her to the table, she would have flopped to the ground like jelly. 

"Are you still alive?" She asked, her voice husky. 

His face buried in her hair, his body still shuddering with the after shocks. "I don't know, ask me in an hour." Came his muffled reply. 

She chuckled weakly.  The table edge was digging into her behind, but she could not summon the energy to move.  Chakotay slowly raised his head and looked down at her, an expression of sheepish wonder on his face.  

"I think we are in trouble here." He groaned. 

B'Elanna raised a questioning eyebrow. 

"I don't think my legs will hold us up for very much longer. Got any of that Klingon strength left?" 

"Not one drop." She snickered. 

With a deep sigh he heaved himself up, pushing her further onto the table.  B'Elanna raised herself up to sitting and giggled when she saw him swaying drunkenly, trying to adjust his clothing. 

Chakotay grinned back at her, his smile faded as he noticed the dark bruises on her arms.  The expression on his face was frightening, dark anger, deep pain.  B'Elanna knew what he was feeling, it was written all over his face, the walls were gone, and he could no longer hide from her. 

"Hey, don't do that.  Not now." She grasped his hand, pulling him to face her.

"I hurt you. I put marks on you." He hissed. 

"Are you kidding?  After this I might never let you out of bed again!  Chakotay, you seem to have forgotten who and what I am. This is me, B'Elanna.  You put more than a few bruises on me before and if you look at your back you will find more than a few marks that I put there.  Why are you being like this?  Since we started sleeping together you have been treating me like some human weakling. Stop it!" 

The battle that was waging inside him would not be eased with words.  She was right and he had to come to terms with it, or he would hurt her deeply. 

"You're right, but it's not easy for me. Give me some time on that one." Sighing he dropped a kiss on her brow. "I'll must go and finish the repairs."

"I'll help, but I need my clothes" B'Elanna watched the conflicting thoughts racing through his mind. With a nod he headed out the door.

The forest was only slightly illuminated by the two moons that were on either side of the sky.  Forest creatures gurgled, screeched and hooted around in a symphony of sounds.  Chakotay sat in a small clearing, his medicine bundle open before him, his hands on the akoonah.

"A-Koo-chee-moya.  Far away from the bones of my people, I am calling the one being that guides me." Chakotay opened his eyes and he found himself sitting in the desert.  It was also night there, but there was a fire in front of him, and his father sat beside him.

"Father. I was calling for my guide, but it is good to see you."

"It is good to see you too son. She felt that I might be more help to you."

"She may be right." Chakotay sighed, then wearily turned to face his father fully. 

"There is a woman, she is all, and she is everything.  But she brings things out of me that I don't know how to deal with." He shrugged helplessly at a loss, unable to explain something that he could not understand himself.

"Wonderful. Its about time." 

Chakotay looked at his father in surprise. "You don't understand." 

"Oh yes I do, more than you know.  I have often worried over your ability to control your stronger emotions.  I used to worry that one day, when it got too much and you exploded, if you would be able to live with the consequences.  But your mother, ah… your mother, she knew.  She knew that one day you would meet someone that would drag those feelings out of you.  She was right."

"You always treated my mother with care and tenderness.  Protected her.  B'Elanna will not accept the same from me.  I get a dose of her Klingon temper every time I try.  Its hurting her and I don't know how to stop."

"She is Klingon?  Perfect.  Strong, volatile and passionate.  I could not think of a better mate for you.  She will keep you on your toes.  I only wish I could meet her." He laughed joyfully. "But you are wrong about your mother. You do her a great disservice, and me by making her out to be less than she was.  She never needed protection.  She was strong and vital.  Chakotay, you were born to us late in life, we had been together for nearly twenty years before you were born.  By that time the fire and brimstone from our early marriage years had mellowed.  Though she still had a strong will, we had learned each other so well there was no more need for the explosions from before.  Believe me lad, we had many of those.  I still have the scars as mementos of the times I tried to impose my will over hers."

"I had no idea.  She was always so serene.  Maybe because I was seeing her out of a child's eyes, not as a man." Chakotay sighed.

"Let go Chakotay, it is time to stop thinking and simply feel.  Have no fear; you will not be able to overpower her.  She will not let you."  With those words he disappeared and Chakotay found himself once again sitting in the forest. 

Moving around the cabin silently, Chakotay put his medicine bundle away.  The talk with his father had helped calm the demons of fear that plagued him, though not settled them completely.  Time could only do that.  B'Elanna lay sleeping on the bed, she had taken the time to turn their star ship shuttle bunks into a double bed.  A subtle message he had not caught until now.  Naked, he slipped into the bed.  As if by some instinct she turned to him, snuggling into his body.  Holding her close he let sleep claim him.

B'Elanna watched him from the doorway as he worked hunched over the console on the desk.  In the week since the attack she'd learnt him more than she had in a lifetime of friendship. Part of it was their bond of love, the other was that his every emotion was now so much easier to see.  His walls were almost totally gone. 

"OK Chakotay, I've waited long enough.  Spit it out." She said as she stalked around the desk to sit on the edge.

"You're starting to scare me.  Am I that easy to read?" hedging the subject seemed like the best thing to do until he had his words nicely thought out.

"Only to me.  What gives?"

With a sigh he decided plunging in was his only option. 

"I have a plan, but you won't like it." To give him credit, he only winced inwardly at the poor choice of words while he automatically cleared the space in front of him and, grasping her by the hips, slid her across to him.

"If I know you, and I think I do, I wont like it because it involves you going solo again doesn't it?"

Chakotay nodded, eyeing her carefully.  He still was never quite sure when that Klingon temper would get loose and she attacked. 

"I want to get into the Borg camp, this time set up a few charges.  The whole place is riddled with gas pockets.  A few light charges, set at just the right places would make one hell of a bang."

To his surprise B'Elanna nodded, "You're right.  Take the fight to them, as we wouldn't survive another attack here. Go in Marquee style, rig a few explosives in the camp, booby trap the route out.  Good plan.  I am sure that we would be able to get in and out undetected if we move fast enough." With a pause she leaned forward until she was eyeball to eyeball with him. "The operative word here being WE.  We are in this together.  You, me, and the villagers.  Its time you started letting us do something too."

He sighed, watching her.  His heart bursting with the feelings just looking at her brought.  Love, tenderness and a healthy dose of lust. 

"You're asking too much."

"No I am not.  I 'm asking you to stop pushing me behind you.  We have always stood side be side, in all the years in the marquee and all the time on Voyager.  Whatever we faced, we did it together, as a team.  Its what made us stronger.  Now, just because we are mated, you're trying to shield me, hold me back, and its not working.  Chakotay I love you, but if you don't stop treating me like a human, I am going to have to hurt you." 

His expression went strange, eyes intense. "What?" His voice hoarse, "what did you say?"  

Understanding dawned and she sighed remorsefully.  How stupid and selfish she had been.  This gorgeous, warm, wonderful man had opened himself up to her from the first.  Showing her how he felt without any holds bared.  While she harboured her feelings inside, locking them back, refusing to give him more than she deemed safe. "Not just stupid, cowardly." She berated herself. 

Taking his hand and slipping down onto his lap she kissed his palm softly. 

"I love you.  It's hard for me to talk about all the sappy stuff, but that does not mean that I don't feel them.  You are everything, all and forever. Without you my life would be empty and without light."

It was like a damn had opened inside him, he grasped her, cuddling her as if she were the most fragile, precious thing in the universe.  His great body shook with emotion and he buried his face in her hair, breathing in the scent of her.

"I knew you cared, I just never allowed myself to hope that you would ever be able to say those words to me." 

Then pulling back, he cupped her face in his hands and lost himself in her eyes. "Say it again, say it now!" He demanded.

B'Elanna smiled softly, letting all that was inside her shine through. "I love you Chakotay."

Pure bliss filled him and with a sigh of joy he lowered his mouth to hers.  The kiss sent her flying over the top, every nerve in her body went into overdrive, as his hands ran down her neck over her shoulders and landed on her breasts.  In seconds they were both fully aroused and trembling with impatience.  His eyes twin furnaces of fire and need while his busy hands tugged and pulled at her clothing until she sat there naked and shuddering.  The strong pull of his mouth on her breast shot straight to her lap, each tug answered there by a rapidly building ache.

"Hurry, faster! I need you inside me. Now!" Reason fled as she felt the heat surge through her, burning her blood.  Somewhere in the very back of her mind she knew it would always be like this between them.  Hot, hungry, an unquenchable fire.  

Tearing and ripping at their clothing until they were both naked.  She was sobbing, mindless with needs too strong to hold back, too powerful to control.  In one smooth move he lifted her and lowered her onto him.  Sheathed to the hilt, he groaned in agony at the hot wet feel of her muscles clamping around him.  Her first climax slammed into her, through her, bowing her back under its power while she rode him furiously up to the next peak. 

There was no style, no finesse and no tenderness.  There was only now, only them.  Man and woman, and the undeniable need to bind themselves together with chains of fire and passion, and the need to become one.  Her muscles clenched around him, his seed poured into her and the bond was forged.  Fused by the heat of their love. 

"I love you." The words cried out by both.

---------------------- 

To be continued…


	7. Part 7

This is it, the last part….. For those wonderful people who reviewed and encouraged me, MANY MANY Thanks….. And an extra special Thank you hug for my Sister for her beta reading and her unwavering belief in me, and for having the courage to boot me out from under my desk (where I was quivering and hiding in self doubt and denial!!)

PART 7

The rock face was slick and cold with ice.  Even with the rope holding her, she felt uncertain of her footing.  Above her, Chakotay moved with a grace and ease that had her muttering enviously. The clatter of rocks and the heavily accented and badly mangled Klingon curse below, made her snort with laughter. 

"York, do have you any idea what you just said?"  B'Elanna asked, looking down into York's sweating red face. 

He grinned cheekily back at her. "No, but I'm hoping if I use it often enough, one day either you or the Commander will tell me."  

"Don't count on it." 

Her muscles wept, it had been a long time since she'd put them through so much torture.  It was exhilarating.  The afternoon sun warmed her back and the cold wind cooled her damp skin as she found yet another foot hold and pulled herself up.  They had been climbing steadily now for about two hours. 

Another colourful curse echoed through the air, this time from her as she scraped the wall for the hundredth time.  Her knuckles had very little skin left on them.  Chakotay shook with suppressed laughter, he'd tried to make her wear protective gloves. 

B'Elanna huffed, for once he'd not argued with her.  In fact, since their talk he was treating her more or less the way he used to.  She just wished that this one time he had insisted.  But then again, if he had she would have been hell bound to fight him on it, and that would have led to a whole other kind of wrestling match.  She cut off that line of thought as the arrow of pure lust shot through her.  Looking up and seeing his excellent behind above her did nothing to quell the hum of desire that was firing up her blood. 

"This climbing thing definitely has its advantages." 

"Did you say something?" He shouted down to her, trying to move out a little so that he could see her.

"No, just admiring the fantastic view." 

"Its better from the top."

"Oh, I don't doubt that."  She chuckled.

York choked back a laugh.  He was close enough to her to see exactly what she was admiring. 

At the top Chakotay dropped his pack and leaning over grasped her hand, pulling her up beside him.  She was grinning like a kid at Christmas. 

"Man, that was great. Come here." Grabbing him behind the head she kissed him, hard.  Chakotay's blood went from warm to incinerate in the space of a heartbeat.  Pulling back he fought the cloud of desire that was fogging his brain.

"If you two are quite finished, I could use some help here," came the amused laugh from just below the ledge. 

"Sorry, climbing seems to have a strange affect on me." 

"That's it, tomorrow I am moving the cabin up here." Chakotay swore.

It took them very little time to find his camp and set up their equipment.  The bombs were very simply made, using the Borg's own highly active fuel they built small plasters, that alone would make very little damage, but would be enough to ignite the gaseous envelopes. 

The plan was simple.  Chakotay and York would set the charges in and around the camp while B'Elanna followed the trail, setting a few bombs along the way in case any managed to escape and head in that direction. 

Chakotay used every ounce of will power to stop himself from trying to talk her out of going on her own.  Yet now that they stood there ready, he could not control the urge any longer. 

"B'Elanna…" 

Her ironic smile and quick shake of the head stopped him.  "Forget it." She said sweetly.

Damn the woman for reading his mind.  With a deep sigh he capitulated.  It wouldn't do him any good anyway.  She was too stubborn.  Too bad that was the thing he loved most about her.

York studied the terrain below, it was a constant surprise and wonder that he had picked up the technology so quickly.  Even now, as he used the binoculars, he did so as if it was something he had used often and not just picked up for the first time an hour ago.

Primed and ready, B'Elanna checked the bombs one last time.  Her own study of the terrain focused on the path around the grove.  It was the route she would have to take to get back to the village and it was the one unknown element in the entire setup.  They did not know the land and had no idea where it leads or how long it was.  Deductive reasoning gave the assumption that it would be simple to follow, with all the Borg traffic going over it in the last few years, it should be well worn.  Her decision to be the one to go had given Chakotay the greatest test to his will.  But even he had to admit she was the only choice.  Though York was agile and quick, he did not have the years of Marquee training that she did and Chakotay was not letting her get anywhere near that camp. 

Preparation completed, they headed to the slippery slope.  The rope Chakotay had used before was still there. 

York was the first to go down.  He would have to cover the outer parameter and head back up as quickly as possible.  He was the lifeline, once things started happening, Chakotay would need help getting to the top fast enough.

Once York was down safely, it was B'Elanna's turn to go.  Seeing the fear and worry in Chakotay's eyes, she grabbed him by his jacket and yanked him to her.  Lips fused to his, she let every ounce of passion and love pour into that one fleeting kiss. 

"Stop panicking, I will see you back at the camp." Then, as she reached for the rope, she threw him a wicked glance over her shoulder. 

"Oh and Commander, conserve your strength.  I have plans for you tonight, and here's a tip…  you're going to need every ounce of energy for what I have in mind."

Quick to recover, he cocked one eyebrow in challenge.  "Really Lieutenant? Just what did you have in mind?" 

"I am going to give you the ride of your life." She laughed as she boldly hurtled herself down the path, barely holding back the whoop of sheer enjoyment.

It took Chakotay a few moments to beat his libido back into place. If there was a man alive that could resist an offer like that, it was not the former first officer of the star ship Voyager.

York watched the figure zoom down, fly into the air, flip and land on her feet in one smooth graceful dance. B'Elanna threw him a grin over her shoulder as she sprinted off to follow the path that lead around the mountain.

"Man oh man, that woman has some great moves." He sighed

"My woman!  If you don't stop admiring her moves I might just have to damage you," came the growl from behind him.  

York blushed crimson, but did not hide the cheeky grin for the older man. 

"I wouldn't stand a chance there any way, she is crazy about you."

"Crazy period, but good answer." Chakotay sighed, cuffing his young friend gently up side the head. "Now lets get to work.  Use the tricorder to find the gas pockets.  There are a few around here.  Place the charges at the point where the gas condensation is the strongest.  The timers are pre-set for five minutes, that means I want you back up there in exactly three minutes, not one second longer." 

York nodded, lowering his pack he took out his tricorder.

His wrist timer set, Chakotay headed for the newly repaired refinery.  The remaining Borg were moving around oblivious to his presence.  From the preparation going on, he realised that they were just about ready to invade the village again.  They must have assimilated the data from the drones that met their end in the village. 

On the left, three drones were working on what looked to him like a weapon of some kind.  He wasted precious seconds unsuccessfully trying to get close enough to see exactly what they were working on.   All he could make out was that it looked like the Borg equivalent to a canon.  He had a feeling that this thing would not only take out the wall, but most of the village and surrounding forest.  The anger that threatened to choke him was forcefully swallowed back.  Evil came in all fronts, but none were as totally despicable as a species that would commit genocide as easily as he would swat a fly.  No remorse, no mercy and no pity.

Moving away from the hive of activity, he concentrated on the job at hand.  He had five charges; three of them went to the refinery and one the regeneration alcoves.  The last he placed right in the centre of the main gas outlet.  They were systematically placed to cause the greatest amount of damage over the widest possible area.  Combined with the gasses natural highly volatile nature and the perimeter bombs, it would completely destroy the surrounding area.  Though it was uninhabited by any life whatsoever, he felt a moments concern about the glacier.  Not knowing how the blast would affect it, and if any, what affect that would have on the planet as a whole.

Luck was with him and Chakotay managed to get out without being detected, reaching the rope with seconds to spare.  York, already at the top, felt the tug on the line and, using every ounce of strength in his young body, he started hauling Chakotay up.  The first explosion went off just as the Commander reached the top.  Not taking time to think as the big one hit and he felt the ground shudder and quake, Chakotay flung himself at York.   The tackle carried them both backwards just as the side of the mountain under them crumbled and slid away.  A massive dust cloud billowed up obliterating everything from sight, leaving them choking and gasping for air.

The destruction was total.  As man of nature Chakotay's heart wept for what he had done, though the warrior in him cheered at the destruction of his enemy. 

There was nothing left of the Borg, the mountain had swallowed every trace of them.  Buried them under rocks rubble and dust.  A deep crater on the ice was the only reminder of what had once been a flat plain of sapphire blue.  There was no way they could go down now, it would take months before the jagged razor sharp sides were melted down enough to be safe to climb through.

Staggering to their feet, York grasped Chakotay's arm, panic and urgency in every line of his body. 

"Some of them went along the path just before the explosion.  I saw them as I was pulling you up.  By all the Gods of Ramatan, they are headed for the Village." His fear escalated when he saw all colour drain from his idols face and terror fill Chakotay's eyes.

 "How many?" Chakotay asked fighting back fear.

"Three I think.  They were carrying something big, it looked like a weapon."

"The canon!  B'Elanna, she's alone!"

B'Elanna staggered to her feet.  The blast had sent her stumbling to the ground, scraping a good portion of skin off her palms and knees.  Aside from that, and being completely covered in dust, she was fine. 

A quick look around showed that most of the damage from the blast had been contained inside the valley.  A few rocks and boulders had tumbled loose in the gorge, but nothing major.  The mountain pass she was on ran in a deep line right through the mountain range, as if a mighty axe had carved a groove.   Nature had many wonders, but this was one of the most unusual she had ever seen.  

Searching around, she found her tricorder where it had fallen and was relieved to see it still working.  Picking it up she continued scanning for cracks in the rock, or fissures big enough to put a few charges in.  The idea was to place them in natural weaknesses, that way the force of the explosions would cause a rockslide that would seal off the gorge.  The tricorder found a few that looked perfect about 100 yards ahead of her.  Hurrying to them, she started stuffing the charges in to them.  She was down to her last bomb when she noticed that something was not right.  Closer examination showed that one of the tiny wires had come loose, probably with the jolt when she'd fallen. 

Muttering to herself in a mixture of Klingon and English, she dug in her pack for the clippers. 

The hair on the back of her neck rose, a sixth sense warning her, it had saved her too many times to ignore now.  Hundreds of different moves ran through her mind in the split second she realised what was happening.  Only one had a chance of saving her.  Tucking herself into a ball, she rolled backwards.  As her shoulders hit the ground, she straightened her body, driving her legs up into the Borg that had managed to sneak up on her.  Berating herself mentally for being off guard, she flipped onto her feet and swung to face the oncoming danger.  There were three of them, one struggling clumsily up from where he had landed when her leg blow had sent him flying, the other two were busy loading a very ugly looking weapon and aiming it at her head.   By the look of the canon, she had no time to try and take them out before they shot her. For a Klingon, dying in battle was the best way to go.  She decided she had never been that fond of the Klingon beliefs anyway and swung around and ran.  Fighting back the urge to look over her shoulder, she zigzagged at a hunched over sprint, knowing how pitifully easy it would be for them to target her in this narrow confined space. The blast slammed into her, lifting her high into the air.  Hot air burned her back and singed her hair as the air was sucked out of her.

"Chakotay," was the last thought she had before her body was smashed into the side of the mountain.

Chakotay flew down the mountain.  There was no other way to describe his reckless desperate decent.  Pure luck saved him from loosing his hold and hurtling down to his death at least 100 times.  York tried valiantly to keep up but was still fifty feet up when Chakotay hit the ground running. 

He made it to the entrance of the gorge when the explosion echoed from the distance.  The deep howl of pain and fury that rose from his throat reverberated over the land.  Once again the ground shook and he was engulfed in a billowing cloud of dust and smoke.  Insane with fear, he headed into it.  Twenty meters in the dust cleared and he came to a grinding halt.  His heart stopped, all thought frozen, as his life ended before his eyes.

"No, no! NO!"  It was a plea, a cry of torment and rage.  The agony ripped through him, his legs buckled and he fell to his knees. 

The path had followed around the mountain was gone, obliterated by fifty tons of rock that rose over a hundred meters high, completely blocking what had once been. 

"B'ELANNA!" Tears ran unheeded down his cheeks as her name was cried from his heart. 

Suddenly, like a wolf that sensed its mate he froze, and then rose to his feet.  A figure was moving towards him.  Relief, joy and gratitude flooded in him, along with a healthy slap of anger.  The latter they would deal with later, right now he just needed to hold her.  B'Elanna ran into his arms, burrowing into his chest. 

Never in her life had she heard a sound like that come out of a human throat.  It had been like the cry of a wounded tortured animal, and knowing it came from him had given her the strength to fight her way down from the small narrow ledge that had saved her life.  His arms clamped around her like vices, lifting her up while he buried his face in her hair.  She suffered with every shudder that wracked through his great body. 

York found them warped around each other like that moments later.  Seeing they were both to engrossed with each other, he quietly headed back to the village.  Silently thanking his God that his beloved Lieutenant was alive.

"Don't ever scare me like that again! I thought I had lost you." Chakotay groaned, drawing back but still refusing to let go, he swung her up into his arms.  For once B'Elanna did not mind being cherished, she knew he needed it as much as she.  Just as she knew that later, when he got over the shock of nearly loosing her, there would be hell to pay. 

"Chakotay, I want you to build us a house."

Chakotay frowned down at her, confused by the statement that seemed to come out of nowhere. "A house?" 

"Yes, you know a roof and walls."

"I know what a house is. What I don't know is why?"

"Don't get me wrong, I like the cabin but I don't think it will be big enough." 

He smiled down at her as he carried her back towards the village. 

"You mean for those eight kids.  I don't know, it would have to be a very big house. Where exactly did you want it built?"

"In the clearing where you first kissed me." She hated to sound sappy, but it was just such a special place to her.  She could think of nothing that she wanted more than to spend the rest of her life living loving and fighting with him, in just that spot.

"You mean where you first attacked me."

"What better place." She grinned.

His laughter roared out long and loud.  They would have one hell of a life but, with her at his side, it would never ever be boring.

Over the mountain, in the centre of the crater, where it had lain undetected for a thousand years engulfed in glacier, the sleek lines of the ship felt the suns rays on it through the thin layer of ice.  Inside something had shifted, a light blinked on followed by a few more, weakly at first but gradually increasing in brilliance.  A metallic voice echoed through the empty corridors and levels.

"Computer back on line.  Automated repair units activated."

The End? 


End file.
